New Findings In Jet Mwebaze Accident

May 27, 2002

THE High Court on Friday heard that armed passengers aboard Islander BN-2A, an aircraft in which Lt Col Jet Mwebaze died in 1998, shot dead its pilot.

By hillary NsambuTHE High Court on Friday heard that armed passengers aboard Islander BN-2A, an aircraft in which Lt Col Jet Mwebaze died in 1998, shot dead its pilot.The complainant, Peter Pekke Wekesa, who owned the aircraft told Justice John Bosco Katutsi in Kampala, while testifying in a civil suit he filed against the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), that “According to the survivors, the pilot, Enos Luwunzu, a Kenyan, was shot dead after armed passengers intefered with his work on board the air craft, before it crash-landed in Kisomoro in Kabarole District.He was being cross-examined by James Mukasa Ssebugenyi of Ssebalu and Lule Advocates, the lawyers for (CAA).He told court that the plane’s crash-landing was caused by human error.Wekesa Tana and Mara Aviation, a Kenyan chattering company, sued the CAA for negligence, seeking compensation.They are claiming US$300,000 (sh500m) being the market value of the aircraft. They also want awards of US$21,000 (sh37m) as loss of earnings per month from the date of the incident and US$10,000 (sh18m) per month as damages and costs of the suit.Wekesa and Tana and Mara Aviation are represented by Stephen Mungoma and Leubeni Owori. The witness told court that the aircraft had been hired from Nairobi for some work in Uganda. Although it entered Ugandan space without the CAA authority, it was granted air traffic clearance, because the pilot wanted to land at Entebbe International Airport.Court heard that before take off at Entebbe, the pilot gave to the CAA a flight plan of Tropical Airlines and not Tana and Mara Aviation, which is a Kenya chattering company that hired it. “The flight plan was from Entebbe to Kasese and back to Entebbe. But, while in space, the passengers forced the pilot to alter the route to go to Beni and Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from where they would return to Entebbe,” Wekesa said.He said the pilot set out at Entebbe on September 25, 1998 with Kasese as his destination. He communicated to the CAA control only in the first 30 minutes of the flight, but he could not communicate any more afterwards.Wekesa said CAA failed in its duty when it failed to ensure that there were no arms on board the plane.“Having failed in their duty in that respect, they continued to blunder in their statutory contractual obligations of navigating the aircraft and failed to immediately dispatch a search and rescue team immediately they lost communication with the pilot,” Wekesa said.He said CAA should have taken emergency procedures after 1 hour and 20 minutes.Ends

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