By VOS Ariogbo Writer
The unauthorized fourteen seater plane that landed in Freetown International airport recently has ignited several concerns among members of the public, prompting many to ask pertinent questions as to who is behind the plane, who paid $20,000 for the transit from Liberia to Mexico, and why the crew members were placed in police custody after Government press release revealed that nothing suspicious was found in the plane?
According to SLCAA Press release, the aircraft was intercepted at the Freetown international airport on Friday 20th September,2024, stating that during the interrogation of the aircraft 4 crew members were arrested and placed in police custody, while noting that the investigation is ongoing.
In a follow up to this issue, the Government of Sierra Leone issued a press release revealing that the said flight did not fly from any recognized airfield in Liberia; the airline flew with fake registration number and did not have a landing permit, nor did they contact the air Traffic controller at FNA before landing. The release notes that nothing suspicious was in the flight and that the four individuals onboard the flight were handed over to the police for investigation.
However, since the Government of Sierra Leone issued a press statement affirming that nothing suspicious was found in the flight, among other things, the million dollar question being asked by liked- minded Sierra Leoneans is: who is behind the flight that flew from Liberia to Mexico and for what purpose did the flight leave from Liberia to Mexico, and why did the aircraft make a stop at FNA without permission? What role did the two Sierra Leoneans who were arrested play in the landing of the aircraft? These are the questions that demand answers from the authorities and not the hasty conclusion drawn from the Government, which has created room for more suspicions about the flight. With the involvement of three Mexican nationals, a country widely notorious for drug trafficking, what has the Government done to track the flight to know the country it has been operating from. The registration has nothing to do with why an aircraft shows up on a flight radar. An airline registration is a legal document just like a car registration. Regardless of registration status, aircraft that show up on radar all have the necessary equipment to be able to relay information. What happened in this case? asked a social scientist.
In an interview with an anonymous social scientist about how does a plane show up on radar, if its transponder is not turned on. He argued that the primary surveillance radars do not rely on transponders to squawk their reply. Instead, they detect the reflected echo of a signal transmitted by the radar itself. He also opined that since the signal needs to go there and back, it undergoes the inverse square loss twice-the signal fall of as 1/r^4 with increasing distance.
The social scientist added that it is too early for the Government to draw conclusions that nothing suspicious was found in the flight, especially when they’ve realized that $20,000 was paid for the air flight trip from Liberia to Mexico.
In the wake of this troubling incident and if this country is really serious in the fight against drug trafficking and substance abuse, SLCAA and the Police must act decisively, openly and transparently, which could resonate with President Bio’s stance in fighting against drug trafficking.
