Last month one afternoon, it seemed like a normal afternoon and we were expecting one Twin Otter to drop by to have something looked at. But another Twin Otter pulled up in front of the hangar, MFB our Goroka based Otter. It had been hit by a bullet just before landing at a remote strip. At the time, there was some tribal fighting on the ground. I won’t go into the details of that or what MAF does when there is unrest on the ground. For more details go to the story at MAF’s website.
1. Bravo in for maintenance earlier in the year
When I learnt of it, I was shocked at hearing of it and seeing the damage and also a little annoyed. As from what I know, I could be wrong. It is the first time that a MAF plane had been hit by a bullet in PNG. After a view people had seen it and someone took photos of the damage. We brought the plane into the hangar to start working on it. The bullet had gone through the rear cargo door and exited through the roof. Normally where a cabin attendant would sit, but fortunately there was no one else on board besides the pilots, just cargo. Two guys started on repairing the damage, one on the door and another on the roof. While I started inspecting the damage done and any further damage. Where the bullet had penetrated the roof, it had just missed the elevator and rudder trim cables by not much more than ¼ to ½ an inch. After inspecting the full travel of the cables. I inspected for any further damage around the aircraft and any other bullet holes. Especially as the pilots had not noticed at the time they were hit by a bullet. They had thought the nosie to be a cargo strap breaking. But had only noticed the damage when on the ground after the incident. After a detailed inspection and not finding anything else, it was home time and there was no urgent need for the aircraft.
2. Bullet hole damage at the rear cargo door
We returned the next day to finish the repairs, as the other guys didn’t require any assistance straight away I got to do some cosmetics and patch the interior trim. We finished the repairs and got the aircraft ready for service around lunch time. So repairing the damage was around half a days work. But the two pilots from the previous day had taken another Twin Otter with them. As at the time we had three Otters serviceable but only two crews available to fly them. So we had one serviceable on the ground, if none were in for maintenance or unserviceable. But come that morning MFT would come in with a problem with the left hand engine (the expected Otter the previous day). So after lunch the crew of MFT were able to return to flying with MFB.
3. The trajectory of the bullet (I have the only evidence left sitting in my toolbox)
It was an interesting experience and a shocking one at the same time. We were very grateful that no one was hurt in the incident and no severe damage done to the aircraft. It was considered a random act of violence during tribal fighting and not targeting MAF. We really thank God for his protection in this incident and a few others on the ground in past weeks. For all of us and myself it was something new, repairing damage done by a bullet.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Glad no-one was hurt, very interesting story.