A Near Miss

Treasures From The Pioneer Era, reported by Ernie Tanner:

I had been asked to take four church workers from the south of Cameroon near to the border with Congo-Brazzaville. Since this was an area where there were occasional skirmishes caused by rebels from the Congo, it was under military control. 

We therefore reported to the Commandant in Yaoundé, the capital, and requested permission to land. This was granted without any trouble and the man in charge promised to inform the two units of troops stationed at the border.

It was a long flight over dense jungle with no obvious landmarks, such as rivers, roads or mountains, to serve as points of reference. I made an effort to stay on course and reached the first village right away. The military assigned me a landing strip, I let the first two passengers out and took off for the next village. I felt reassured that the information of our coming had reached its destination. As I overflew the second village I saw a few people working and was pleased to note that the place was inhabited. Then I prepared to land and was very surprised not to see anyone anymore. As I hovered, I spotted a soldier directly beneath me, with his rifle aimed at me. I felt uneasy. Something wasn’t right here. The village square, where I landed, was empty of people but I saw another soldier behind the corner of a house, whose rifle was also pointed at me.

“There’s something wrong,” I told my passengers. “Please just get out and show yourselves.” They had barely moved a few meters from the helicopter when armed soldiers leapt out from all sides and surrounded them. I observed one of the pastors trying to show the officer his ID, but he waved him away forcefully. Obviously, the message from the capital hadn’t yet got this far.

After a couple of minutes, the rotor stopped. Feeling pretty jumpy and with my heart pounding, I picked up my more or less white handkerchief, alighted from the cockpit vigorously waving my “white flag” and walked towards the group. I tried to look as brave as possible and called out to the officer from a distance that if he wanted to shoot a Swiss, he would become world famous.

He seemed to have composed himself and asked where we had come from. I explained to him that we had come from Yaoundé for an outreach in the south, and that the troop ought to have been informed by the Commandant. He was still doubtful, and said only, “I have orders to shoot at any aircraft that approaches without authorization. My unit (about thirty-five men) was prepared to shoot you down before you landed. But when I saw the Swiss cross I countermanded the order so we could see who was coming.” What a miracle! A black officer out in the middle of nowhere recognized the white cross on a red field! Who knows, perhaps he mistook it for the Red Cross! 

The men held us in check at gunpoint until they had received confirmation of what I had said. Only then did they welcome us warmly and everyone breathed a loud sigh of relief.