Cameroon’s ‘Flying Coffins’ on Inaugural Flight Saturday

A Chinese MA60 Planes

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 Two of Cameroon Airlines Corporation, Camair-Co’s aircrafts:

TJX-SE and MA60 TJX-SD, are due to hit the skies on Saturday on inaugural flight after an initial flight flopped on December 29, 2015.

Jean Paul Nana Sandjo, General Manager of Camair-Co, told reporters that one of the planes will take off from Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport to Douala, while the other leaves the Douala International Airport to Yaounde.

Both 50-seater planes are expected to boost Camair-Co’s fleet to five and help the national carrier to break away from traditional routes: Yaounde, Douala, Garoua as well as Maroua and increase its domestic flights to Tiko, Bamenda, Bafoussam, Ngoundere and Bertoua.

Camair-Co’s general manager has vehemently dismissed claims that the planes are unsafe, though it took over seven months (after the planes arrived in April 2015) for the carrier to secure certification from the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority. We gathered that the aviation authority had been reluctant to certify the planes on technical considerations.

However, Cameroon air force aeronautics experts, who have been using the plane before it was diverted for commercial use, say the MA60s have high-rated security mechanisms. “The planes have been conceived to fly short distances at low altitudes, consume less fuel and are comfortable,” one of the army officers told the national broadcaster a fortnight ago.

Much earlier, Joshua Nambangi Osih, SDF Parliamentarian with a well-known aviation expert, had objected to the purchase of the aircrafts, describing them as “flying coffins.” The SDF held that with the numerous technical problems and accidents the MA60 has registered across the world, it was not safe.

We gathered that the  MA 60 aircrafts manufactured by a Chinese company, AVIC International Holding,  since 2000 have been grounded for various technical lapses in various countries across Europe and America.

Since the acquisition of the planes, they have faced two-level polemics; one concerning its viability; and the second about its estimated cost of 34.4 FCFA billion, said to have been inflated.