Of Uganda Airlines and the mishaps that have distressed the aviation industry in Uganda

By Mwesigye Julius

As plans to revive the national carrier, the Uganda National Airlines Company, are in top gear, there is rejuvenated enthusiasm about the country’s aviation industry that was once the envy of many other African states.

The idea of starting Uganda Airlines was mooted in May 1976 and the airline became operational in 1977. This was after the collapse of the East African Airways following irreconcilable disagreements amongst the leaders of the three original East African Community (EAC) countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania: Iddi Amin Dada, Jomo Kenyatta and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, respectively.

Indeed, Uganda Airlines proved a successful undertaking, operating a total of 26 destinations in Africa, the Middle East and Europe and by the time of its collapse 24 years later in 2001, was operating eight routes, among them London in the United Kingdom.

Dubbed the ‘Flying Crane’, the Uganda Airlines, in its entire lifespan operated 13 different types of planes among them four Boeings; two Cesna; two Cherokee, one Twin Otter and one Fokker (Friendship). Others were one Britten Norman Trislander; one King Air and one Lockheed.

It is one of these planes, a Boeing 707-338C registration 5X-UBC that exposed Uganda to its worst aviation industry nightmare when, on October 17, 1988, Flight QU775 from London’s Gatwick Airport destined for Entebbe International Airport and piloted by Flight Captain Stephen Walusimbi came tumbling down at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, killing 33 of the 52 travellers, including the seven crew members and seven foreign passengers.

Of the 19 survivors on the fateful plane which had two months earlier been ‘hushkitted’ at a cost of US$3 million, was the late Omugabe of Ankole John Barigye, one time Uganda’s envoy to the Vatican.

However, the accident in Rome that happened exactly 30 years ago today, was neither the first nor the last in Uganda’s aviation industry, and below are some of the other air industry accidents and skirmishes that have shocked the country.

Major General Oyite Ojok dies

On Friday, December 2, 1983, Ugandans woke up to the shocking news of the death of Major General David Oyite-Ojok, the then Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) Chief of Staff.

At the time he met his death at Kasozi in Luwero, Maj. Gen. Oyite Ojok was flying in a military helicopter together with several other senior UNLA officers including Colonel Alfred Otto, the then Commander of the Airforce; Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Wilson Okwonga, the UNLA Medical Superintendent at Mbuya Army Hospital; Major Stephen Abili, the UNLA Chief of Logistics and Engineering and, Lieutenant John Kato Kiragga, the then Acting Director of Military Intelligence. Others aboard the Bell Augusta 412 helicopter were Captains Harry Olouch and Charles Kamara of the Airforce.

Gulu helicopter crash

At the height of the National Resistance Army/Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (NRA/UPDF) pursuing the Lords Resistance Army of Joseph Kony, the army lost a helicopter that had been deployed in one of the offensives.

The journalist who broke the story was Daily Monitor’s Frank Nyakairu, and for his efforts the Daily Monitor was closed for about a week.

Intriguingly, Frank Nyakairu was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Nyakairu, a top Airforce pilot, who was later to die in another helicopter crash that also claimed the life of South Sudan guerrilla leader John Garang de Mabior.

Death of John Garang

In July 2005, news drifted in that the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) Colonel Garang had died in a helicopter crash. The chopper, an Mi172 piloted by Lt Col Peter Nyakairu, belonged to the Uganda Airforce and was occasionally used by President Yoweri Museveni.

At the time of his death, Dr. Garang, who was returning from a visit to Museveni’s country home in Rwakitura, was the First Vice President of Sudan, an office he had just assumed after leading a lengthy struggle that culminated in the eventual secession of the mainly animist South from the North in 2011.

NRA rebels capture Uganda Airlines plane

In 1985, at the height of the struggle that brought the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A) to power, the then rebels hijacked a Uganda Airlines Fokker Friendship plane destined for Arua, northwest Uganda, with 49 passengers aboard.

At the time the NRA was engaged in a fierce war with the UNLA soldiers serving under the Tito Okello-Bazilio Okello regime that had overthrown the Apollo Milton Obote regime on July 27, 1985.

Available information indicates that the plane was commandeered to the rebel stronghold of Kasese, southwestern Uganda, by Innocent Bisangwa, who was later to become a Captain in the NRA. It is further said that the plane was released around November 1985, in exchange for the late Lt. Col. Serwanga Lwanga, a rebel officer who had been captured by the UNLA government as he clandestinely headed for Kenya.

UPDF chopper crash in Kenya

In 2012, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) lost three Mi24 attack helicopters in the Mount Kenya area, that were enroute Mogadishu, Somalia, to serve under the Amisom.

The fourth chopper in the contingent, an Mi17 survived the crash in which seven military personnel lost their lives. Twenty one people survived the accident that led to the eventual sacking of then Airforce Commander Lt. Gen. Jim Oweyesigire, and his Chief of Staff Brig. Moses Rwakitarate.

The latter was however later deployed and currently serves as Uganda’s Military Attaché to the European Union (EU).

Premier Nsibambi in helicopter crash

In March 2010, then Prime Minister Professor Apollo Robin Nsibambi was involved in a helicopter crash while in Bugiri district, eastern Ugandan, while early this year State Minister for Finance David Bahati and the NRM Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa were involved in a helicopter crash in Kabale, western Uganda.

Kajura daughter dies

In the mid-1990s Jean Kajura, a daughter to then Minister of Natural Resources Henry Muganwa Kajura, died in a plane crash at Abayita Ababiri. The small plane was headed for Karamoja. Also, in 2010, a small plane carrying six Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) officials crashed in Arua, but all aboard survived. Earlier in March 2009, an Ilyushin 76 cargo plane that was supposed to deliver equipment to the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) contingent in Somalia crash-landed on Lake Victoria, but government sources said at the time no life was lost.