Arthur Lee meets Audrey Hepburn
While looking though my old log book several months ago I came across a particular flight that I did almost twenty years ago and dug up some photos of the day. Here is a short story about it........Art Lee.
The date is Sept.23,1992. I had been in based in Kenya for quite some time and assigned to flying the ICRC (Red Cross) from Nairobi to their operations in Somalia as well as their north Kenya base in Lokichokio where they had a hospital operation mainly for the wounded from southern Sudan.
There was a Twin Otter based in Lokichokio and from Nairobi it was a Beech 200 Super King Air. The Red Cross planes always had the red cross logo painted on the sides, top and bottom of the wings.
Our company also had a second Beech 200 leased out to a local company doing mainly ad hoc charters, usualy with their own pilots but sometimes we'd get asigned to it or a day or two. I was informed that we had a charter to fly the UNICEF Special Ambassador around Kenya.
The Special Ambassador was actress Audrey Hepburn. I didn't have a camera with me so I picked up a Kodak disposible. We departed Nairobi's Wilson Airport around 8 am and had three stops to make that day. The first was to a place called Banisa and neither me nor my colleage, Fadi Chehadi had been there before. We had the co-ordinates and climbed up through the overcast heading north east.
Once at cruise we made a call on the local common frequency and recieved a call back from Iris who has lived in Kenya her whole life and been flying there many years. By some good luck she had night stopped in Banisa and was able to give us the local weather, which was a bit low when she left but felt that it would probably have lifted by the time we got there.
Fortunately Iris asked us if we knew that the new strip was open and the old one closed. We didn't know, so she gave us the co-ordinates. It was around ten miles difference. It really pays to share information.
People from relief agencies met us and took Audrey Hepbern and her group of eight to have a look at the refugee camp where people had come over from Somalia to escape the misery and fighting there. We were there just a couple of hours and then went on to Mandera, near the Ethiopian border where we were again met by the relief agencies and had a quick tour of the camps and feeding centres.
Last stop of the day was in Wajir. It is actually a military base with a large paved runway, a military camp and a small village. The village had very wide dirt streets and small shops as well as simple homes, and some big trees with Giraffes wandering around town. It was nice to see kids and people just walking around while the girrafes would reach up into the trees to eat. They all just ignored each other. We stopped in Wajir for several hours and took in a meal at the UNCEF camp before going back to Nairobi.
It was quite a nice change from our regular flights to go out on one like this. This was also something important for Audrey Hepbern as well. It turned out she was suffering from cancer and passed away several months afterwards, on Jan.20,1993.
The Beech B200 Super King Air on the ramp in Nairobi Wilson Airport,Kenya
FL290 in the B200
Banisa runway. Looks the same as the dirt roads.
Audrey Hepburn with Arthur Lee
Audrey Hepburn and some relief workers in Wajir, Kenya
Giraffe enjoying a snack in Wajir, Kenya
Fadu Chehadi, my co-pilot. He moved to the USA in the late 90's. I met him one day in 2010, and he is now a Captain on an A320 for Virgin America.
Log books can be great to look back on sometimes.You will see trips that you remember like it was yesterday and then realize how long ago they really were.
Enjoy...... Art Lee