Bush pilots play crucial role in rural areas

IN the space of a few weeks, the rural folk in Morobe have lost two bush pilots who would have been heroes to them.
Morobe-based third level airline North Coast Aviation’s chief pilot and Kabwum man Thomas Keindip died on Nov 26 after a short illness.
And on Dec 23, another of the airline’s pilots, David Tong, died after his aircraft crashed near Diangat in the Kabwum district.
Following the death of Keindip, Governor-General Sir Bob Dadabe expressed condolences to the family and also highlighted the fact that the pilot and third level airlines like North Coast Aviation provided a critical service for rural people in the country.
Sir Bob, as former Kabwum MP, obviously would have regularly relied on the airline for his electoral duties and so had personal contact with the deceased chief pilot.
Just last week, North Coast Aviation lost Tong in an accident in the high and densely forested Saruwaged Range.
He survived the crash and would have been taken out alive had a rescue team reached him soon after he made contact with his superiors via mobile phone. However, bad weather and the forbidding terrain prevented that and his body was retrieved three days later.
The airline’s flight operations manager, Geoff Thiele, said on Tuesday that the company was devastated by the loss of its pilots, who had served with distinction.
It takes more than just being pilots to do what these dedicated men had been doing.
While Keindip was a local Kabwum man who had a mind and heart to serve his people, Tong may have been driven by a strong desire to work in a small airline company and fly into exotic places.
As we were to find out later, Tong who was born in Macau but later migrated to Australia. He was an accomplished pianist — in fact one of the finest in Australia.
One may ask, why would a man of such talent choose to fly with a third level airline in a third world country when he could have been making a name for himself through music?
We may never know, but Tong gave his whole to his job, and as we were told by his boss, he was loved by all he came into contact with.
Thiele described Tong and Keindip as brilliant pilots whose deaths would greatly impact the airline’s operations in the province.
After the loss of one aircraft, the company now has only two which will be offering 18 seats daily out of Nadzab to Morobe’s rural district stations.
The loss of an aircraft and two dedicated bush pilots is a big blow to the company’s operations and its services to the rural people of Morobe who have taken these bush pilots as heroes.
The situation at North Coast Aviation once more underscores the dependence of some rural communities on air services for the delivery of goods and services.
The need is there and many third level airlines have tried to provide these vital services over the years.
However, trying to keep their operations sustainable and profitable have been quite difficult.
It would take those in the aviation industry and the government working together to ensure a continuity of these services to rural communities.
We need to make rural air services a lot more cost-effective for operators and affordable for the rural populations relying on them.
There simply is no alternative to such services today.