HEWA BORA PLANE CRASH GOMA

18 April, 2008

It is Friday and all the businesses and schools are closed in mourning of those who died in the accident on Tuesday. Businesses closed yesterday at noon and they will remain closed through Saturday. By now many of you have heard of the plane crash on Tuesday afternoon in Goma, DRC. I was at work preparing to go out to shop for a keyboard for my computer when we heard the news here. I went with a group from Caritas to the site and quickly lost my co-workers in the crowd, but my mission was to get to the crash site and help where I could. I stayed the rest of the afternoon there, doing what I could.

Here is the earliest photo of the crash available here in Goma, then compare the second photo taken from the same position but just a little closer, this was taken over two hours later when many journalists began to arrive.

At the crash site it was chaos, but I give so much credit to those young men putting out the fire any way they could and tearing through the smouldering debris looking for survivors. They were throwing sand on the fire and scooping water from the road into basins to throw on the flames, luckily a nice BIG rain had just finished before the accident; otherwise there would have been no water to even try to help. Then there were those who were trying to stop the flames from spreading to other buildings, and others who were moving goods out from damaged or burning buildings so that they could be salvaged. The effort was tremendous.

The one organization so visible in all this chaos was the North Kivu Red Cross. They were the ones I saw following an organized plan of action that was very effective in their endeavours to help rescue and transport victims from the crash site. It was over an hour after I arrived before the military began to try to cordon off the area to get control of the situation. In the meantime I was trying to move people back who were not actively helping as they were hampering the efforts to get water. I have to say my efforts seemed helpless, but finally when MONUC arrived things began to happen.

Literally the only water available was from a large puddle in the road. You all know what a large washbasin looks like; they are all made from plastic here. I saw basin after basin finally in ruins from the efforts of scooping and carrying water to the site. When MONUC forces began the cordon process, they also drove in two big trucks of water and people were able to take water from the trucks in basins to the fire. Now they were starting to form a brigade to pass the water, organization was starting to form. But still the crush of onlookers was a defeating presence, just standing in the way and crushing forward to see, getting in the way, slowing the progress…it was awful.

When the Goma police and Congolese army joined in to move people back it was with violence that they accomplished the job, thus further inflaming the crowd. Several times people starting throwing rocks, the first time in my life I was in the midst of such a situation, looking up to watch out for rocks coming down so that I could avoid being hit. I found myself trying to be a peacekeeper between the onlookers and the police.

After the last survivor was taken away, to be a peacekeeper between the soldiers and the crowd was the next immediate need I saw; as I watched in horror the violence beginning to unfold I felt I had to try and do something. Sometimes as the police threatened and beat the people back the crowd would turn to run and there were many falling and being trampled upon, I could just watch in horror and pray no further injuries occurred. As I tried to intervene in these circumstances I think I was a little voice of calm that did some small thing to help make it a bit better. Several times I even stepped in between police and crowd taking a hold of clubs and arms to hold them back and to say we need calm. Everyone thought that I was a Nun and that helped give me a credible presence, they listened. THANK GOD from whom all blessings flow. I would never have believed I would be the one to step in between violent people, but there I was time after time holding arms ready to strike and saying, we need to be calm…AND IT WORKED. People listened, both crowd and police. Then as evening was coming on I decided I better return to the Procure.

From the Procure I went with Abbe Daniel to two hospitals to visit the wounded. I was so glad to be able to do this because prior to going to the hospital I had been told at the site by the volunteers at the site that only 4 people had been removed alive, but when we arrived at the first hospital we heard that they had received over 40 patients alive….it turns out that 20 were passengers and others were injured on the ground where the plane crashed into the shops. I was able to visit with the one American family from the plane and they had a horrible tale to tell. Luckily for them they all survived but they walked over people underneath of them in the plane to get out and those still alive reaching up trying to get out and when they tried to pull them up and out they were unable because they were trapped in the rubble. The smoke was horrible and the flames became so hot they had to leave them in the plane…what a horrible position to be in, what a choice to have to make. They are a missionary family of the 7th day Adventist church, presently working in Tanzania and were returning to Tanzania.

Another survivor was a Xaverian missionary priest, an Italian. He was able to break out the side and escape with minor burns, cuts, and bruises. He reports seeing that a wheel on the plane was destroyed and that the pilot was trying all he could to stop the plane, but the runway was short because of the lava flow from years past and so at the last moment he veered off the runway to avoid crashing into the lava flow at such a rate of speed and killing all on board. Then, the path the plane was on led into the shops next to the runway. I have heard people saying he made a good decision that saved lives. What a difficult decision to make…another of many that day. As of today I believe he is alive though his co-pilot died the first night in the hospital, they had serious injuries…

Today I heard the story of one woman who threw her baby outside the plane though she was trapped inside. She died, but her baby has survived. She threw the infant outside not knowing what would happen or if anyone could find the child, but she threw the child in hope…

Another man described the impact when the plane came to a stop and how the seats all broke lose and crashed together. The woman seated next to him ended up being his cushion on the impact. She died and he lived, then he was able to help get 4 more children out of the plane before the flames became too intense. Stories of tragedy and stories of heroic acts. So many people that day working so desparately to save lives. Now the process of re-integrating our lives begins. We have to move on and make sense of it all; we pray we will be able to make improvements here in Goma so that the next disaster response is improved by what we have learned this past week from this tragedy of the crash of the Hewa Bora Airplane bound for Kisangani and Kinshasa.

Caritas helped in the next day to load and transport goods from the crash site so that they were not stolen, thus returning to those shopkeepers the goods they had purchased for their businesses.





Now ends my story of the crash, I don't know what else to say, yet there is so much more to say. Life begins to return to normal. On Saturday I walked past the site and it was still cordoned off, but they were loading the tail section of the plane on a truck as i passed. It was eerie and brought back all these thoughts and images. Then I passed this way again on Monday and now the streets is opened again, yet people are still digging through the rubble, looking for belongings or body parts, what ever they can find.

Unfortunately the big planes are still flying out of the airport here, which is unsafe for this kind of aircraft, there is no room to abort should the need arise as it did last week. Also we doubt much will be done by the government as there is a direct relationship of President Kabila to the Hewa Bora Airlines. We have a long way to go here in Goma. Pray that in some way we can help.