Starbow Needs To Be Investigated. An Open Letter To The Aviation Minister And The GCAA 

I am troubled as a traveller on local flights in the country but with much concern about the numerous stories emanating concerning Starbow airlines unless of course they can be pardoned as the only airline that meets unfortunate coincidence on its flights.

The story is told of a flight which left Kumasi to Accra on Sunday afternoon. The passengers began experiencing turbulence because according to the story there were rains in Accra. The plane kept roller coasting while the terrified passengers kept praying. This fearsome episode is said to have continued for over an hour till the pilot landed safely in Kumasi where they took off from.

Sunday passed, Monday passed and Tuesday morning came along with no official public statement from Starbow explaining issues and apologising to the affected people and family members of the victims. It was not after news broke about the council of state member and the Member of parliament who were on board that nightmare, that the responsible company found need to bring out a press statement on the matter.

I would have thought they would be smart enough to begin the press statement by apologising and stating the issues. But no. The statement begins by betraying the reason for putting out that press statement. We have heard stories of an alleged blab la bla. It went on to describe the situation as a “moderate turbulence which is consistent with the unstable weather condition.”

What even beats my imagination and even gets me the more frightened is where it states that “This sudden change in weather is consistent with the changing of the seasons and cannot certainly be anticipated. “

Cannot be certainly anticipated by whom. It does not take three hours to fly from Kumasi to Accra. And the aviation authorities and flight ‘whatever’ don’t have the expertise to know that in thirty to forty five minutes there will be a rain storm in Accra for which reason a flight should be grounded. I guess the Meteorological Service and airport authorities and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority should be taking some flack and fall for this incident.

Other than that, the airline Starbow which has had very frightening experiences in the country should be questioned. Is there a recalcitrant pilot who flew the plane without authority from Accra? Is it the management which should be questioned for forcing the pilot to fly just to make money at the expense of the safety of Ghanaians?

I will be very surprised if this incident goes uninvestigated. If it does, I will forever question the so called managers of our airports in the country. This should be a great call on the new minister of aviation Cicilia Dapaah to show some greater concern to prove her worth as minister of aviation under a competent administration.

If nothing is done and it goes down as one of those stories that die a natural death either by financial inducement or the forgetfulness of Ghanaians, .............

Concerned Citizen
Ivan Korshie Heathcote - Fumador