By Geoffrey Chipolyonga

He had a fiery Irish temper but with a heart made of pure gold. He could pull a punch at short notice and was not afraid of expressing his feelings. Above all, flying was his greatest love and crashing was always at the back of his mind. That is how controversial John Murphy, the pilot who died in a plane crash accident at Ndola International Airport on 5^th March this year was remembered.

On that fateful day, John Murphy, 64, and a trainee pilot took off at 0643 UTC for their first training circuit. They did five approaches which involved touch and go and landed safely at 0726 UTC, remembers Ndola International Airport Manager, Vivian Sikanyeela.

They took off again at 0846 UTC for the second training session and did six more approaches. At 0932 UTC the aircraft requested for a full stop landing and was cleared. It was at this stage while executing a landing when suddenly the aircraft tilted to the left and hit the port wing on the runway.

The aircraft tried to lift off but veered to the left in full throttle, crossed the taxiway up to the apron and crashed into a stationary high loader. That’s how John‘s long life and that of his co-pilot came to an abrupt end.

At a moving memorial ceremony held for John at Chimbwe Lodge in Ngwerere Lusaka recently, his children, relatives and friends spoke their mind off. Diplomacy was cast aside as they took turns to extol, eulogize and describe John in the best way they knew him without restraint and amid sobs. Perhaps that’s how great men are remembered.

John’s life, it appears, was full of adventure. His own elder sister, Ms Paula Rhodes who was unable to attend the memorial service recited some of the adventures which John took at an early age in a speech which was read on her behalf by a family member.

It read like this. Thinking back to those early years, brings to mind the school holidays at about age 12 or 13 when John and his best friend Taddy decided to cycle to Kafue from Lusaka taking with them rice, salt and fishing equipment, determined to survive off what they could catch. Survive they did – minimally – and returned home thinner, fitter and very hungry!!!!

On another occasion the boys spent a whole school holiday with Taddy Elderman senior that was at that time involved in Operation Noah, which aimed to move as much wildlife as possible from the area into which the Zambezi was flooding to form the Kariba dam.

“Reflecting on these early days has made me realize that John thrived on challenge, created challenge when it did not present itself. His constant testing of boundaries forged him as a strong individualist sometimes at the expense of the comfort of those closest to him, but carried him to commercial piloting in fixed wing and helicopter in North Sea oil-field work and back to Africa in Special Forces operations in the Rhodesia terrorist war.” She wrote.

Apart from his prowess as a pilot, John was generous to a fault, completely free from hankering after material possessions, always willing to help and share his money, if he had it.

In 1993 John was the only survivor in a plane crash which occurred in Mozambique in which two of his colleagues perished.

This is what John could remember about this accident: The plane was failing to maintain its four hundred feet above ground. He had left the flight deck to start hurling sacks of maize from the cargo door in order to lighten the load when twice the whole aircraft shuddered. Within seconds he was seeing tops of the Mopane trees lashing past the door of the aircraft and he knew the game was up.

Not knowing what else to do, he knelt, head down, on the cargo. Seconds later, the world erupted as, amidst tremendous rending of metal and crashing of trees, he was tossed about like a rag doll.

The accident seemed to have happened within a few seconds. He was engulfed in utter darkness and stillness reigned. Then he heard cries and realized it was one of the pilots and the smell of avgas sent chills of fear down his spine as he realized that in most air accidents, fire occurred and that death by slow burning was to be his lot!

Spurred by this grisly thought, he tried to move but he could not as he was trapped under the cargo. After exhausting work he freed himself and saw that he was in the only section of  the fuselage that wasn’t wrecked though it was somewhat squashed .

He was later to discover that Oskar, one of the pilots had died with his mouth open, perhaps in surprise or that he was shouting his last command to the co- pilot. The co- pilot was not dead by then but was groaning in severe pain. The rest is history.

Sadly for John, on 5^th March this year, he did not survive the plane crash at Ndola Airport and his memorial at Ngwerere attended by mostly people in the aviation fraternity ended with a song he loved most and a cup of tea. A fitting end indeed.

The author is Public Relations Manager at National Airports Corporation Limited