Car, Aircraft In Near Collision On Kotoka Airport Tarmac...

Teeth gushing and wailing would have been the order of the day for relatives and loves ones of passengers on a South Africa bounded airplane in the wee hours of 27th October, this year (10 o�clock), but for the timely application of brakes by its pilot to avert a near collision with a vehicle on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport, in Accra. The 'New Crusading Guide newspaper gathered that the pilot applied a force break when he out of the blue spotted a vehicle crossing him few minutes after he was given clearance by the Air Traffic Warden and the airplane was at the verge of taking off to its destination. The South Africa bounded airline after the incidence did not appear to be damaged but the forcibly applied breaks resulted in heated wheels - a situation that made the pilot crave the indulgence of passengers to wait for a while till it became safe for takeoff. The near-collision delayed passengers for more than an hour before it took off to South Africa, the passengers observed. One of the passengers on board the flight was Madam Gloria Akuffo of the famous 2012 Supreme Court election petition. According to her, immediately the flight was preparing for takeoff, the crew members started murmuring amongst themselves in a frightened manner what had happened. �Still not clear on what was making them sound panicky, we were told repeatedly to keep our seat belts fastened and remain in our seats until we realized the plane had come to a halt,� the legal luminary told the New Crusading Guide in a telephone interview yesterday. It was then (after the brace up refrain from the cabin crew), she explained, that the pilot told them about the near-collision and pleaded with them to wait for a while for the breaks to cool off since it had become unusually hot as a result of the force application of the brakes. Madam Gloria Akuffo confessed that even though they did not witness the event live, the force brakes and the panicking sound from the cabin crew sent the passengers panicky. It appears the incident did not only cause a delay in the flying time of the airplane here in Ghana but also made passengers who were on transit from Johannesburg missed their connecting flight to Cape Town. �We had to wait once more at the airport of Johannesburg for close to an hour before an airplane arrived for our transit,� she stated. Madam Akufo has since returned from South Africa. The multi-million question bothering the minds of many a Ghanaian is how come a vehicle crossed an airplane which was near takeoff when the tarmac had been cleared by the Air Traffic Warden and called for the plane to fly? Tongue is also wagging on how come the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has not come out with an explanation or a formal apology to the passengers, the crew and the pilot for the inconveniences caused? Meanwhile, when the Public Relations officer of the CVA was contacted to respond to the issue, Eric Amani denied knowledge of the incident and begged for time to respond the issue immediately he touches down from Nigeria where he is on an official business.