Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wenge refuses to apologise to pilot Richard Leahy

By DAISY TANIOVA PAWA in The National

MOROBE Governor Luther Wenge has refused to apologise for his remarks against pilot Richard Leahy and said he does not regret having said them.
Mr Leahy was the pilot and owner of the Cessna 185 fixed wing aircraft that crashed on Dec 30 last year instantly killing a family of six passengers.
Mr Leahy miraculously survived the crash.
Mr Wenge, who is a relative of the victims, called for the deportation of Mr Leahy.
His comments were met by disgusted and angry readers who said the governor should withdraw his remarks as Mr Leahy had been providing a service which should have been provided by the government.
Mr Wenge said the public failed to understand the context of his outburst.
He said he had reacted in such a way because the accident could have been avoided.
He said the aircraft was old and never replaced and with the millions that Mr Leahy had been making he should have bought a new aircraft.
Mr Wenge said people’s lives were not marbles to play with, and, in the aircraft business, owners must go to all extremes to ensure that their aircrafts were safe for travel.
He has, however, expressed his gratitude to Mr Leahy for providing such a service when there was no other service provider.
Mr Wenge also refuted claims that he had promised to buy two aircrafts for the Kabwum districts.
He said he had never made such commitment and asked the people saying otherwise, to produce facts and figures suggesting he had.
Mr Wenge said in 2007 he had fought with the National Government to allocate K20 million for improvements of district roads.
He said up to last year K14 million has already been released to districts and the members of each district should take the initiative to improve and create road links between their districts

 

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:17 PM

    Cessna 185 is an old aircraft? LOL - some of us fly aircraft older than that that are in great shape! Aircraft are usually maintained to a much higher standard than your general ground vehicle. I guarantee you that Mr. Leahy didn't intentionally crash his airplane and that if he'd of known it would happen, he would have tried to avoid it.

    - US Pilot

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  2. Kabum Pindui4:16 PM

    My Governor Luther is a stupid man to be running Morobe. He can not do anything for his people so it is time to change him in 2012 elections.

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  3. Mangi Lae4:20 PM

    Downright arrogant bastard who needs to be kicked out! Richard Leahy has done 1,000-plus times more for Morobe and Papua New Guinea than this self-proclaimed Luther "Songang" Wenge. Get rid of this conman!

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  4. Anonymous4:15 AM

    A new aircraft does not necessary garanti safety mr governor.! aircraft accident is the result of a chian of event.What if the people of PNG ask you to resign because hospital equipement are not renewed,maintained ,or because the security force has not renew arms and equipemnt.Remeber ,you could buy a brand new plane today and crash it if you fly into storm! ask the Ethiopian airline pilot that crashed a couple of days ago in berout lebanon.!!Comon Apologize !

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  5. Anonymous8:20 AM

    This Leader has done nothing for Lae, he does not deserve to remain any longer! Isn't it possible to cast a vote of no confidence in the Provincial Parliament so he can leave early!!!
    The people of Morobe Province deserve somebody better, Lae has literally deteriorated under his nose and the people are not blind. Time should run quickly and let the people vote for somebody more intelligent and fair to run their city and Province.

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