top of page
Search

Treasures From The Pioneer Era: «Overtaken by the Night»



Ernie Tanner writes:

Carrying supplies in the great heat to the people starving in the camps at the edge of the Ethiopian Danakil desert in the 1980s was an enormous physical challenge for me, quite apart from the emotional anguish at the sight of those suffering and dying of hunger. The poor children suffered most and died fastest, having no reserves to draw upon. 


Tired after such a day, I was on my way home flying to the mission station in Dese. I had to pick up my Swiss assistant at a distribution center on the way. He had radioed to me that the doctor would have to remove a thorn from his foot, but that wouldn’t take long.


In Africa, everything takes longer, and that also applied to this little operation. Finally, my assistant appeared and we were able to take off, albeit a little later than planned. Still, according to my calculations, we ought to reach Dese before night fell, suddenly as it does in Africa. Soon the desert was behind us. We flew towards the low hills where we could see more and more scrub and then also trees. My altimeter rose parallel to the hills, which were covered more and more thickly in forest. The headwind blew stronger and low-lying clouds impeded my view and prevented a direct approach. This meant I had to divert southwards to lower ground, losing a lot of time.


Troubles rarely come singly, and aviation is no exception. The clouds didn’t only make the sky dark, but dusk was also falling on the ground. To make matters worse, it began to rain. And the helicopter had no windshield wipers. Visibility got worse by the minute. I flew just above the treetops and ventured cautiously forward by the light of my headlamps. Sometime soon I would have to come across a road that I knew ran alongside the last mountain ridge before Dese. At long last, the high forest thinned out and the headlights revealed the road. What a relief! I flew slowly along the road hoping to find a clearing large enough for us to land. Sometimes this narrow track vanished under the tree canopy. Frightened, I prayed, “Lord, where’s my way? Please lead me in the right direction!” And so I kept finding this little track again and again, as it wound through the jungle.    


After a steep hill, the track widened out and became big enough for me to risk landing in the dark. But then a power or telephone cable suddenly appeared in the headlights and prevented me from landing. I circled in the hope of not losing sight of the clearing. Very cautiously I approached the opening from the far side, intent on keeping the tail free of the treetops. The punishment for such negligence would be the loss of the tail rotor, and the helicopter would then rotate around its own axis.


Finally, the skids touched the ground. We were safe! Even in the night and the rain of Africa!


Next to the clearing was a building that looked like barracks. We had landed at a military base. The soldiers were very surprised by our nocturnal visit, but welcomed us kindly and offered us a simple place to sleep. However, my assistant wanted to go on and walk to the base which he thought was on the other side of the hill. That was where our car was, and he said he would come and pick me up later. I was worried. “No way, that’s nonsense! It’s night, we are in Africa, and there are wild animals all around. Better to stay here,” I argued. After we arrived in Deze the next day, and the people on the base confirmed that the many hyenas living in the area would most certainly have eaten him, he appreciated my objections. They had saved him from a lonely, bitter death.


Comments


bottom of page