Thursday 17th July...MH17.

 

By Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa

 

Last evening as I sat having a cup of sweet tea with my brother, my sister in law and my mother when I casually glanced at the news wires feed on my phone and the news from Ukraine about a downed Malaysian airline flashed up on the screen. I read it and immediately passed on the phone to my brother, who took one look at the screen and we both bounded up the stairs to his private quarters to further monitor the events on the TV and the internet. Both of us are news junkies. 

 

A Boeing 777 is an awesome piece of kit. One of my other interests in life is flight. I am sad enough to be able to tell the difference between a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 767 at 37000ft if they are directly above me. And the sound of a Rolls Royce Trent 970 at full pelt is just awesome but let me not bore you all with my borderline anorak fixation with planes. Next time.

 

Having said that, allow me to give you a first hand experience of a Boeing 777 aeroplane cockpit. I once had the chance to be invited onto the flight deck of a British Airways flight as we flew over the Sahara desert, Europe and approach and landing into Gatwick. It was an array of buttons, dials and computer screens. As we flew in the dark at 35000ft over the Sahara, the lack of turbulence made if feel like we were stationary. The flight deck is incredibly small and narrow. It is also very crammed I noticed. Having been used to the port holes in the fuselage of the plane with a view restricted to one side, I found it almost surreal to be looking forwards. The earth floats by almost silently and over the Sahara, we had to manually squawk (broadcast on radio our speed, height and direction) as the radar coverage is sparse. We spoke to other aircraft in this way.

Boeing 777 Flight Deck

 

At these heights, one feels almost detached from reality. At one time we were nearly seven miles up above the Mediterranean and looking outside made me feel almost like we had our existence. That is why I feel sorry for the poor souls who were on that flight as they streaked across the sky above the Ukrainian countryside. It was supposedly late afternoon and with a long flight ahead, many people fall asleep, watch tv or read. I usually look out of the window. 

 

Whatever happened to that flight to cause it to fall out of the sky is still speculation at the moment. But in this day and age planes shouldn't be shot out of the sky especially if they are civilian planes. We should all be able to sit and enjoy the surroundings of these incredible metallic tubes taking us across the globe.

 

We will wait for the judgements of whatever happened to it and if its concluded to be a terrorist attack, the perpetrators should be brought to justice. And if the hand of a sovereign government is involved they should be ready to face international sanctions no matter how large or powerful.