Emergency Evacuation

Saturday, April 25th:
Last Saturday seemed like an ordinary Saturday.
But in the evening, we had a phone call to change what was an average Juba weekend into a rather tense working weekend. Andrew was being asked to fly to a remote airstrip in SS to pull out a team of Medair workers and evacuate them from an area where the security situation had deteriorated.

A UN situation report the previous day had alerted us to the possibility of troops moving into this particular area, but I hadn't taken special notice. We receive these reports almost daily in our inbox. Often, the places in the reports seem very far away; it is too easy to become desensitised. I feel concerned for the people caught up in these situations, but often they do not impact us directly.

However, for the second time since arriving in SS as a family, Andrew was preparing to fly into an area of potential danger to evacuate a team of medical workers. Last time this had happened, a few months ago, Andrew's flight had been recalled after an hour or so of him being in the air, as the security situation had become too dangerous for the medical team to get to the airstrip. He had to abort his flight and return to Juba. Another team of MAF pilots had tried again a couple of days later, this time successfully pulling out the aid workers who needed to be removed from the fighting zone.

But now, Andrew was in line for his second evacuation flight. The request came through on Saturday evening, meaning that the flight would have to take place on Sunday morning. MAF does not normally operate its aircraft on a Sunday, but last weekend was an exception. The Medair team on the ground were getting very concerned about the risk to their safety as troops were reported to be closing in where they were based. Locals were already abandoning their homes, fleeing on foot to the nearest town about 60 km away. My heart went out to all those mothers and children who had to leave their homes so suddenly out of fear of what may happen to them if they stay. What a dreadful situation to be in.

 As soon as the call came through, Andrew and the Operations staff sprang into action. Over an hour of meetings, risk assessment and decision-making took place before everything was decided and then organised for Andrew to fly out of Juba early on Sunday.

Sunday April 26th:
At 06:45, Andrew was already on his way, climbing aboard the MAF vehicle to take him to the airport. The Operations staff were already at their computers in the office, manning the situation.

At home, Sunday was now underway. The children were soon up and needing breakfast. I decided to take them all to church as normal, despite the torrential downpour!

In these situations, there is always a certain level of tension. For Andrew, security and the risk factor are foremost in his planning and weigh heavily on his mind. This can be tangible for the rest of us from the moment the flight is confirmed. I feel the risk too. I have to try very hard not to worry. So you can imagine how relived I felt when this text message flashed onto my phone screen half way through our church service, from our new Operations Manager, Andy Judge:

It was a relief to know that:

1. Andrew had landed safely and successfully evacuated the medical team 

2. He was safely on his way back to Juba!

This was the rural airstrip where Andrew had flown in to carry out the evacuation:

And this is the Medair team with Andrew, thankfully safe on the ground back in Juba by lunchtime on Sunday! :-)