Story by Lungpinglak Domtta & Neetha David. Photos by Lungpinglak Domtta.
Last week, Lungpinglak Domtta, a pilot serving with MAF in Uganda, had an adventure.
It was a Tuesday, and at 8 am, Lungpinglak had taken off on his C206 to Nothern Uganda. He needed to drop two passengers in Adjumani and then fly out empty to the next airstrip and pick up two more passengers. The flight seemed to be going as per schedule and it looked like it was going to be another usual day in the life of an MAF pilot in Uganda.
As the aircraft touched down in Adjumani, Lungpinglak didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, and continued down the runway. 200 meters down the runway, suddenly, he felt something very unusual.
The aircraft was pulling to one side.
Lungpinglak slowed down and stopped the aircraft. He looked out of the window, to check on his left wheel and asked his passengers to check on the right wheel. He saw a complete flat tyre on the left wheel.
Stuck, without having taxied off the runway, Lungpinglak, radioed the MAF office in Kajjansi for help, shut down the aircraft, and jumped out. He asked some local bystanders who had come to have a look at the aircraft, for help. Thankfully, they obliged, and helped Lungpinglak push the plane out of the runway.
After four hours of waiting, another MAF plane arrived at the Adjumani airstrip with an engineer and a spare tyre. The engineer made sure the tyre was changed properly and after some basic checks, they got back on the plane and headed back to the MAF base in Kajjansi.
Reflecting on his experience, Lungpinglak says, “After the incident, I kept thinking to myself, if the tyre had gone flat right on landing, the outcome would have been very different. I’m so thankful that it happened later on after the plane had slowed down a fair bit. I praise God for His protection and for keeping me and all the other pilots in MAF safe as we fly each day.”
At MAF, we are so grateful for our wonderful prayer supporters that pray for us frequently! We rely on them, and can see their effect on days such as these.