A Difficult Flight

10 days ago we got a flight request to try and locate a vehicle that was missing after it had been washed into a river. Unfortunately we had to turn down the flight initially because we were still waiting for my license to be renewed by the authorities. But by the end of the day, with licence in hand, we called the organisation back and arranged to do the flight the following day. We agreed to take the families of the missing people from N'Djamena to the nearest town to where the accident had happened and then start the search. 

On the morning of the flight, N'Djamena was experiencing heavy rain and we had to delay the departure until the skies had cleared. When we arrived at the destination the weather was closing in again, making a survey flight impossible. We landed and I secured the aircraft to the ground in case the weather got worse, or we needed to stay overnight, while the families went to see the governor. 

Weather 20 minutes from destination

Locals had begun searching before we arrived and shortly after lunch we heard that the missing car had been found and, sadly, the two occupants had both lost their lives. As a search was no longer required, it was decided to return to N'Djamena that afternoon, with the family and one of the deceased men. The family acquired a coffin and we returned to the Capital. On the flight down there had been a glimmer of hope that the men would be found alive, but the wailing of the passengers saying goodbye to all who had come to see the plane off told a tale of hopelessness. Please pray for this family, especially the mother of the deceased, that she will be comforted in this difficult time.

Loading the coffin onto the plane

Flying back to N'Djamena, even a difficult day can have moments of beauty.

On a more positive note, the week also marked the start of the school year at Wellspring, and Luke's first day at school. Luke has settled into school really well and has rated it 10/10 so far, enjoying being tasked with ringing the school bell for the first week and building marble runs with his classmates.