MAF communications officer Tajs Jespersen got to experience a day in the life of pilot Bridget Ingham, as she attempted to bring important cargo and passengers to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.
Story by Tajs Jespersen
A normal day in a pilot’s life in PNG is hardly normal at all. That became clear when I was scheduled to fly with pilot Bridget Ingham over a two-day period.
The trip was planned to take us from Mount Hagen, in the highlands, to Balimo, in the lowlands of Western Province, before continuing to Kiunga on the other side of the Western Province.
As we started our journey it became clear to me that flying from the highlands to the lowlands is no easy task.
Clouds were building up in front of us. We tried to fly above the clouds, but because of oxygen requirements, it would not be possible to fly at those heights for a prolonged period. Bridget wasn’t ready to give up yet though, and so we tried circling down to find a possible passage below the clouds
We ended up flying through a beautiful valley system. It was an amazing experience, but after ten minutes the clouds in front of us would not allow us to continue further. For safety Bridget turned the aircraft around to fly us back to Mount Hagen,
One of the other passengers, Ruth Mageva, who works as a midwife for the Sustainable Development Program (SDP) was scheduled to attend a health patrol the day after. It was therefore important that she got to Balimo to be able to join the patrol.
You can read about the important work of Ruth and SDP here.
So as we returned to Mount Hagen, Bridget and the flight operations team laid a new plan.
We had passengers going to Kiunga and passengers going to Balimo. How would we succeed with both? It was decided that we would fly straight to Kiunga, and meet up with another MAF aircraft from Balimo in Kiunga. That aircraft could then bring Ruth back to Balimo in time for the health patrol.
The trip to Kiunga, although still challenging, was successful and Ruth could fly back to Balimo.
Bridget and I were not done yet though. As we got the plane emptied and refuelled, we had another important trip to make, while there was still light in the sky. We were bringing school supplies and medical supplies from Kiunga to a remote village, Suabi, around 30 minutes of flying away.
On this flight we also brought a young teacher, Job Tom. He is originally from Kiunga, but had agreed to live and teach in Suabi’s local school.
You can read more about his sacrifice to serve a remote community here.
As we approached Suabi, there were many rain showers that we had to navigate around. Thankfully, the airstrip itself was just at the edge of a rain shower, and we managed to safely land before the rain enveloped the place.
The supplies were off-loaded and as we got ready to take-off again, the rain had stopped, and the sun was peeking through the clouds.
The trip back to Kiunga went smoothly and Bridget and I celebrated a good day with grilled fish at the local restaurant before retiring for the day at the airport lodge - charging up for a new day with new challenges ahead.