Dear Mr Nalu,
This is a belated thankyou for your press releases highly favourable to not only myself but also the Leahy family and in particular to my late father, Mick Leahy. Dad passed away at Zenag (thirty years ago) where he had lived with our family since the end of World War II. He is buried there.
Thankyou also for defending me against comments made by our governor Hon. Luther Wenge. I felt as soon as I became aware that he had made them that they were unwarrented. I have conducted commercial flying operations in PNG but mainly in the Morobe Province since 1964. During that time I have carried (whilst single pilot in command) over 50,000 passengers the overwhelming majority of whom were PNG citizens.
Up until December 30th, 2009, the day of my accident, I had never caused any injury to any of my 50,000 passengers. The fact that six died on that day will weigh heavily with me for the rest of my life.
Although this was an accident that I could not have prevented I am awaiting the CAA findings on why the engine failed on that flight. If an aircraft is propperly maintained and the pilot carries out his duties in accordance with the set down procedures, aircraft engines simply should not fail. Normally there is some warning if an engine is developing serious problems and remedial maintenance can be carried out prior to further flight. With this particular failure, there was absolutely no warning.
During the 24,000 hours I have spent flying light aircraft around PNG, I had had only one previous engine failure. I landed the aircraft in a lake and my two passengers ( and myself ) escaped unscathed. The engine failure was due to bad maintenance and I recovered monetary damages from the people that I had contracted with to carry out my maintenance at that time.
Needless to repeat, my thoughts have gone out to the next of kin of those six souls lost on that day and will always remain with them and those that were lost.
I remain an out patient at the burns unit of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and will not be fully recovered from my sixty per cent burns until early next year.
Many thanks once again for your support and kind words that appeared in the press on January 15th, 2010.
yours sincerely,
Richard Leahy.
This is a belated thankyou for your press releases highly favourable to not only myself but also the Leahy family and in particular to my late father, Mick Leahy. Dad passed away at Zenag (thirty years ago) where he had lived with our family since the end of World War II. He is buried there.
Thankyou also for defending me against comments made by our governor Hon. Luther Wenge. I felt as soon as I became aware that he had made them that they were unwarrented. I have conducted commercial flying operations in PNG but mainly in the Morobe Province since 1964. During that time I have carried (whilst single pilot in command) over 50,000 passengers the overwhelming majority of whom were PNG citizens.
Up until December 30th, 2009, the day of my accident, I had never caused any injury to any of my 50,000 passengers. The fact that six died on that day will weigh heavily with me for the rest of my life.
Although this was an accident that I could not have prevented I am awaiting the CAA findings on why the engine failed on that flight. If an aircraft is propperly maintained and the pilot carries out his duties in accordance with the set down procedures, aircraft engines simply should not fail. Normally there is some warning if an engine is developing serious problems and remedial maintenance can be carried out prior to further flight. With this particular failure, there was absolutely no warning.
During the 24,000 hours I have spent flying light aircraft around PNG, I had had only one previous engine failure. I landed the aircraft in a lake and my two passengers ( and myself ) escaped unscathed. The engine failure was due to bad maintenance and I recovered monetary damages from the people that I had contracted with to carry out my maintenance at that time.
Needless to repeat, my thoughts have gone out to the next of kin of those six souls lost on that day and will always remain with them and those that were lost.
I remain an out patient at the burns unit of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and will not be fully recovered from my sixty per cent burns until early next year.
Many thanks once again for your support and kind words that appeared in the press on January 15th, 2010.
yours sincerely,
Richard Leahy.
To Richard Leahy,
ReplyDeleteI have never met you before but I read about your accident in the mountains of Morobe and read a bit about it on the internet too. It was a period of time that was really unfortunate for the aviation industry in PNG as there was at least three major accidents in a very short space of time.
One wonders why accidents like this occur in PNG and oftentimes it is the pilots who get the blame but this really is not the case. First up, the rugged terrain and the unpredictable weather patterns of PNG make flying in PNG not only unique but also the ultimate flying test for any light aircraft pilot. Then comes the problem of weather PNG's Civil Aviation is effective and how much we could trust the people maintaining the aircrafts,after all the pilots only take the plane from point A to B but it is the people maintaining the aircrafts that are responsible for the safety of all on board, including the pilot.
It's almost a year now and I am still waiting for any news as to why these accidents happened. While we hold out and wait for closure from the investigations, there is a documentary I would like to share with you. If you could, please look up Fatal skies, a documentary into flight accidents in PNG produced by Journeyman Pictures.
Wishing you a speedy recovery
Mangi Bomai lo USA
Richard,
ReplyDeleteYour letter here moved me and in doing so I am compelled to question those in Authority and particularly Luther Wenge on what is he doing make travelling affordable, is he bulding better roads? does he even know your history and by that I mean she should know you are not someone who just sprouted up but have been doing it tough all these years, for now, please ignore these empty drums and I pray that you have a speedy recovery and come back home.
Terry