Wildlife Authority Boss Survives Crash
Amacha Goli and Gerald Tenywa
17 November 2009



Kampala — The Uganda Wildlife Authority plane that crash-landed about 100 metres after take-off in Adjumani district

FOUR people, including the director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Moses Mapesa, survived after their crashed soon after take off.

The incident happened at Openzinzi Airstrip in Adjumani district.

The four-seater Cessna C206 plane belonging to the authority crashed at 3:00pm about 100 metres from the airstrip. Emmanuel Twesigye, the pilot, attributed the accident to the bush on the sides of the runway.

He said as he was taking off, the grass got entangled in the flaps of the plane, pulling it to the right, causing the tip to hit the ground.

Twesigye complained of severe pain in the left leg, while Mapesa said he was fine.


Mapesa was in Adjumani to preside over the signing of a multi-billion agreement between the district, the authority and Lake Albert Safaris for the concession of the East Madi Wildlife Reserve.

James Omoding, the Lake Albert Safaris representative, was taken to Adjumani Hospital with a cut on the head.

"We have a good pilot who was able to manage the situation. We have all survived and we will come back to Kampala tomorrow (Wednesday)," Mapesa said.

He added that there was need to maintain infrastructure to avoid accidents.

In a statement, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was investigating the cause of the accident. The airstrip, the statement added, is managed by district authorities.

interesting coincidence that it followed the reopening of hunting. Lots of people in Kenya are not liking that decision.

Long grass on the sides of the runway brushed wing tips on landing.

Pilot asked airport staff to cut grass before take-off due some hours later.

Staff did a very sloppy job, lazily hacking at some stems and leaving lots of stuff.

Pilot took off with plenty of very tall grass on both sides of the runway.

Two facts above, "sloppy cutting job" and "pilot decided to take off".

I don't really understand what Kenya has to do in all this...