Nick  grounded this particular aircraft.  There now seems to be some controversy as to whether he was qualified authorised! to ground an aircraft in the first place,  Something I find very strange; howeve, I feel that he could be pretty confident of getting the backing of any reputable civil aviation authority, not to mention potential passengers and travel agency that provide SBS's with dollar waving  passengers.

It appears he's received this reprimand  from the MacKinnon, with director Tony Pascoe informing our Belgian pilot that should Nick Duffield ever do such again, he would be dismissed immediately.

Email  between  Pilot Nick Duffield & SBS

---- Original Message -----

From: cirrus-sbs

To: xxxx   &   xxxxx

Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:32 AM

Subject: re 415 basket

Hi Nik,

Trust SA has some good weather.

l have a problem. You have put a note in the logbook re the 415 saying the basket was no longer to be used.

l think this was because you did not trust Mohameds swaging ?

Now l have Ramses who maintains he knows these things

saying the basket is ok.

l think before we put write off notes on the logbook you should discuss with the chief pilot and myself.

l will get Felicity up anyway to replace the wire or wires

but would appreciate if you could give me the reasoning for your decision.

all the best Colin

                                        -----------------------------------------------------

Hi Colin,

The basket has at least two flying wires which have in excess of 6 strands on them broken.

Cameron's stipulates the maximum acceptable damage to be 6 strands. I withdrew the basket from operation on this basis; there is no problem with Moody's swaging at all, and I am perfectly happy with his work.

I will emphasise again that in excess of 6 strands of damage to basket wires, I feel too much for us given our operating conditions; I would refuse to fly the balloon with this basket.

I hope that clarifies the situation; I know we all would like to see 3 400s in the air on the same day, but safely.

Cheers

Nik

PS: Felicity is good to come up to TZ in April, her rate will be the same as last time she tells me.

January 2009, CAA inspection

Civil Aviation Inspection occurred at the Serengeti Balloon Safaris operational base at Seronera, Serengeti National Park.

Late January 2009:

Appointed me as one of two SBS Safety Officers:

According to SBS management, the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority has ordered SBS to appoint two safety officers. One of these positions comes to me. At the same time, Nik Duffield was appointed assistant chief pilot. It had been recognised that the then-local chief pilot was experiencing difficulty upholding the responsibilities of this position on his own. In contrast, Nik had previously held this position with SBS.

February 4 2009:

re next year’s employment, I seek confirmation of the following year’s employment

Director Colin Mackinnon states the following:

January 2009: After seeking clarification regarding my continued employment, Director Colin MacKinnon, a qualified pilot) sends me an e-mail. He confirms he is happy to offer me my 3rd successive year of employment. He said, "We have a good team & do not want to change it.”

February 2009, Tony Pascoe arrives in the Serengeti:

In mid to late February, director, Tony Pascoe, flies out from the UK; he initially spends time in Arusha (Local HQ) before visiting the operational base in the Serengeti National Park, Seronera.  please note that Mr Pascoe is not a qualified pilot.

During   Pascoe’s visit, he becomes antagonistic.   Having noticed my concerns surrounding low fuel quantities assigned to the company’s aircraft, in this case, 17-man balloons (Inc pilot) with a volume of up to 450,000 ft.³  )  with flight safety jeopardised, not to mention only able to conduct shorter flights than planned/advertised one-hour duration, I had no hesitation in going against SBS's ludicrous policy after that I added what I considered to be more appropriate fuel levels to the balloons that I was in command of.

Given that we were so obviously short of fuel on most flights, I also had serious concerns surrounding the total lack of mandatory reserve fuel; I never dreamt that I would be taken to task on such matters. In over 20 years of flying, with approximately 1700 hours of experience, nobody has ever questioned my normal fuel requirements. To question a pilot on such matters does not make sense; it’s simply a no-brainer.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I told Pascoe that fuel calculations are always the pilot's responsibility; it's mandatory that pilots assume that responsibility.

It was clear by his crimson face that this did not sit well with the now beetroot red-faced Mr Pascoe, who instantly went on to splutter "that as director of the company,  I have  the right to overrule me or any other pilot in my employ even on such matters relating to flight operations".

Once accounts of this episode were out in the public on my 2010 website,  I was not in the least surprised that he denied ever saying that, as it would be commercial suicide!

Pascoe attempts to justify himself: "

Absurdly, he attempted to justify himself on this particular issue, blurting out, “Nigel, it costs money to fly fuel.”  I felt this was preposterous yet probably the most truthful thing he had said; however, we're talking pennies. I defended myself appropriately & continued to ignore the company rule of taking just four tanks.

Please note this was the same quantity allocated to the company's eight-man balloon, which is half the volume/half the carrying capacity of those in question. I had no problem with the fuel allocation (of four tanks) with the eight-man balloon; reassuringly, we had the appropriate reserve fuel on that one, so there was no problem. Is it not absurd or just damn-right crazy, certainly irresponsible, to only assign the same fuel quotas to larger passenger balloons? I had a great deal of difficulty getting my head around their reasoning.

*For the more inquisitive, you can  read two independent expert witness reports later, each covering this topic.

12 February 2009: Letter from myself to Colin: Leaky balloon parachute not sealing properly

I needed to talk to Colin about the 425 balloon, as the same problem has come back. It’s becoming a very difficult Balloon to operate. Basically, it looks like the parachute is too small. Can we find out what UltraMagic(Spanish manufacturer) gave us as a replacement to the previous problematic parachute? Was this new parachute made any larger and if so, by how much?

Later it transpired that the manufacture had made the monumental mistake in that the second parachute was manufactured even smaller than the failing first that leaked, they should have made it larger, analysis indicated that the parachute valve had been made originally far too small.

This demonstrates to me that the 425 (425,000 ft.³) was not made from a tried and tested pattern. I now question if this particular aircraft was ever correctly/legally constructed when referring to design drawings. This is another factor that points towards SBS insisting on non-standard balloons I can only surmise that this manufacturer had never supplied an Balloon envelope of that size without installing the far safer rapid deflation system.

Were SBS balloons uncertified prototypes:

My investigations have failed to find any other operator in the world operating like-for-like without a rapid deflation system (RDS) fitted in balloons of this magnitude. It should be noted that the 450,000 ft.³ balloon registration MVX was the only balloon fitted with the appropriate deflation system. During my time with SBS, having concerns surrounding balloons without the rapid deflation system, I flew the 450 whenever I could get my hands on it. Obviously, in fairness to my colleagues, I had to give way from time to time; that said, my logbook entries indicate that I flew that balloon 66% of the time.

March 2009:

Reprimanded for drinking too much

All our water comes from below the hippopotamus pool; with the reverse osmosis water filtration system broken down, I bought bottled water for myself and my colleagues, subsequently placing the receipt in the petty cash tin.

Tony reprimands me for drinking too much water. I see this as yet more provocation. On the same day, instruct another pilot to reuse old/used staples when repairing aircraft, in this case, previously mentioned broken alloon basket Suspension wires.  Designed to provoke me inso far as to challenge my stance regarding aircraft maintenance standards.

  Provocation:

It can’t be ignored that the provocation may have been levied in order to encourage me to resign. Had I done so, I would stand to lose the end-of-contract $10,000 bonus; I was not going to fall for that one.  Salaries were made up of different bonuses, end of contract and passenger bonus.  When added to the supposedly   SBS salary component,  this equated to no more than what one would expect as a flat salary. For that reason, I refer to these bonuses as salary-withholding tactics.  It is my philosophy that by paying commercial pilots bonuses to fly has the potential to degrade flight safety.

Critically important: during this time whilst entertaining both Tony Pascoe and his wife, Pascoe is obviously on the agenda to irritate me. He takes me to task on my insistence on taking five tanks of fuel on each of my flights; he states that it costs money to fly fuel,

I doubt that any  would argue that over the last 22 months that I spent in the Serengeti,  Nita and I entertained the visiting directors on each occasion that they made an appearance. Both appear to have an appreciation for the superb Asian cooking that Nita became renowned for. Similarly, we also entertained all the pilots in the same fashion; my next-door neighbour Mr Nik only had to smell a curry in the early stages of cooking before he would appear on the doorstep. Nik was missing his family a great deal,  so we had no problem in accommodating him;

However, during the day, we hardly got five minutes of rest before he would be back again. On one particular day, just out of interest, Nita decided to count how many times he came around. He always forewarned of his intended arrival by shouting hody-hody-hody, which is a wonderful traditional Masai term to forewarn others that they are about to have a visitor, something that the Masai tribe used as a matter of courtesy, also helped to avoid being speared.

Unbeknown to Nik, bless him! We had a nickname for him of hody-hody-hody. On that particular day, we counted no less than 14 visits, which was beginning to stretch even my courtesy. Nick was not renowned for bringing a beer with him, yet he had no problem taking a few homes with him!

Tony made his way from Arusha, visiting the operational base deep in the Serengeti to our base of Seronera. I was outside as he and his wife arrived arrived. Once we got past the normal pleasantries,  Tony and I walked around to my accommodation in order to put the kettle on!,  whilst his wife Manita? A  slim, rather soft-spoken lady chose to go straight to the director's house but not before accepting our invitation to join myself and Nita for an evening meal.  

As we walked, Tony started to discuss the world's financial crisis with some urgency.  It was obvious that this recent event was foremost on his mind; it was as if he wanted to talk so as to unload.  As he did so,  he became red-faced, at times stumbling for words, drooling. “Nigel this is very serious, I can tell you” Many have no idea how serious this is going to get" in a much louder voice. “It’ll get much worse, I can tell you that”

  Now, as Ramses had just arrived after the invitation from Colin, it was obvious that Tony was not in total agreement with his temporary employment. Colin had indicated in an e-mail prior to Ramsay's arrival that he may have made a mistake, indicating that we might not need him as first thought; however, he felt compelled to honour his word. Obviously, Colin had made this decision long before the ramification of the world financial crisis was fully understood, let alone in the public eye,I might add, before all the passenger cancellation poured in like never before.

While in Arusha, Tony had witnessed that office worker Gloria had a pile of identical pieces of paper on a desk; she was busy adding the contents to the booking chart on her computer. Apparently, Tony asked “ Gloria if they all new bookings”?  ‘No, Mr.Tony”, she replied, “these are passenger cancellations”  That news must have sent his blood pressure ballistic, and yes, I could understand that.

As Tony and I sat on my deck doing what I normally do, drinking tea, baboons were running riot in the nearby trees, it soon became obvious that he was understandably very concerned about the dwindling passenger numbers, “Nigel, I'll tell you what's wrong with this place “too many bloody pilots, that's what's wrong" now he was glaring me in the eye, his own eyes very watery, his face almost crimson.

This is all very interesting, as a few weeks before his partner Colin was visiting the base, he enquired as to who the new boy was pointing towards a new local recruit. At the time, I was most surprised, thinking that should know of this guy.  I explained to Colin that he's the new trainee pilot, slapping his hand on his knee. “What trainee,” asked Colin, I don’t know anything about this"  I explained that it was something that Tony had organised and that this young guy was recruited from the National Parks office, rumoured to be related to some highly influential National Parks official. Not to mysteriously, this is indeed the very Department that gives  SBS permission to fly within the park.

One must take into account that the local Tanzanian pilots would be far cheaper than bringing in us Western pilots. This creates confusion. Here we have a company flying some of the largest hot air balloons in the world; they are on record as the most expensive balloon ride in the World, yet want to bring in a total novice who may have to go to  USA complete to complete a relatively modest amount of training, thereafter hot-footing back to Tanzania be granted some type of license.

With obvious good reason, this system is seriously floored. Once any new recruit is back on home soil, all that is required is a small amount of rubber stamping by the local yet not up-to-speed CAA. Once these dangerously flowed formalities are completed,   he is free to take responsibility for flying high-volume passenger balloons in the Serengeti.

To gain type-rating qualification to fly such a large balloon, one must demonstrate calendar time and/or hours step by step before being granted a higher-rated license.  When I travelled that journey, I was initially licensed to fly a five-man balloon referred to as a 105 (150,000 ft.³). I think I had to do the further 100 hours on that type before being able to take a test to fly a ten-man balloon with a volume of up to 210,000 ft.³ going on to repeat that process before being allowed into the 400-plus category. Allowing a recent trainee to go straight into the 400 category may well be interpreted as putting profit before passenger safety, which may come back and bite !

Unbeknown to Tony Or Colin, Nick Duffield and I had come around to thinking that this guy was not pilot material. From my observations, he failed to demonstrate any interest in flight preparation,  he was not interested in getting the rigging of the balloon correct, and only wanted to get his hands on the :  to be situated in the driving seat, so to speak.  

It is no surprise that the best way to become a balloon pilot is to spend a year as a ground crew first. Again, that position appeared beneath this individual; some people will never make a pilot,  we felt we had found one in this guy. Keep this in mind when reading accident report and survivors account.

As prearranged, Tony and his wife joined us at about 6 PM. Having not met Tony's wife before, there was a bit of catching up to do, and certainly for Nita, it was a pleasant change of company for once, rather than the evening being dominated by male talk,  for once she might escape ballooning talk.

My boss had a liking for Kilimanjaro beer, in fact, any beer for that matter, I am a one bottle per night, man. Besides, I also have to think about aviation regulations and the consumption of alcohol in the lead-up to a flight. From the early afternoon conversation, Tony was aware that I wanted to discuss the following year's salary.  I'm concerned about the falling passenger numbers, particularly as most of our salary is derived from flight bonuses. Along with other pilots, I recognised that we could easily stand to lose approximately $20,000 per year if we remained with the same targets. I make a policy not to discuss such topics when alcohol is about, particularly when your boss has just consumed five bottles. It was getting late, and the problem for a pilot is  that it was approaching 9:30 PM, well past my normal bedtime. It's at this point that Tony brings up the topic of the following year's salary, saying, “Come on, we got 10 min. We can get this sorted, as there will not be a lot to discuss!

I politely requested that we leave this topic until the following day when we could do this over lunch. It appeared that he wanted to have some confrontation as he now brought up the topic of my insistence on taking five fuel tanks on each flight. Despite appealing for common sense to prevail, all while explaining the necessity for carrying this amount of fuel, Tony started to get on his high horse by attempting to convince me that as he is a director of the company, he has total authority over pilots and, therefore could overrule any of his pilots, even to the extent of fuel quantities to be carried on the company's aircraft.

Any pilot reading this will now be in fits of laughter; in fact, who needs to be a pilot to see how ridiculous this situation is going to get? Next comes a rather bizarre statement, and I quote, “Nigel, it costs money to fly fuel" Well, there's no argument there, as it just might.

I decided to try to quell what was becoming a seriously, heated discussion, particularly as he is a non-pilot with no aviation qualifications to his name; he was wading into potentially dangerous territory by pressing a few wrong buttons in his obvious attempt to provoke me. Mindful that my piloting duties in the following morning demand that I shall be getting out of bed by 4 AM, I have no intentions of going to bed ruffled; therefore politely draw his attention to the fact of my upcoming flight and that it was time every good pilot should be in bed. As soon as he departed, determined to stay calm, I took a few deep breaths and decided to put all this down to the fact that he had been drinking at his usual rate of knots.

After the Tanzanian civil aviation authority had taken a deeper look at SBS   2008  fatal accident, I was appointed one of the two safety officers. Assuming the role of safety officer immediately makes me  legally responsible for the entire fleet as well as the conduct of pilots, on February 25th 2009, I issued my first safety briefing.

At the same time, Nick Duffield was appointed assistant chief pilot. Nick was  the obvious choice as he had been the chief pilot with SBS in the past.  It had long been recognised that Muhammad was having difficulty maintaining this post. More often than not, whenever there was a civil aviation inspection, Mohammed, affectionately known as Moody, would disappear for a while; thereafter, failing to return until after the coast was clear! Bless him such a wonderful character:; of whome  I enjoyed working with.

Wary of the fact that SBS  displayed a serious hostility towards anyone daring to question the way anything got done, I had my work cut out. I knew that I was going to have to tread very carefully if I was going to stand any chance of rectifying many safety matters.  For this reason, my initial report was purposely toned down. Knowing that If I was going to stand any chance of doing any good, I needed to get my foot through the door long before tackling the more serious issues. In that report, I brought to the management's attention  relating to electrical ties were on the triggers of all fire extinguishers, even those placed on or around the company's Balloons. I insisted that these locks be removed for obvious reasons. Gas handling was another issue; the lack of adequate training was another. I highlighted situations of ground crew refuelling gas tanks, (which necessitates venting vapour into the atmosphere) using their cell phones. Again I got taken to task on my theory  that this  was  a dangerous exercise.

May 29th 2009: Turkey fatal balloon accident:  (this becomes  most relevant later  ) Is your passport upto date ? I shall be taking you on a winter  trip to Turkey )  

Dr Kevin Buerle, 53, an astronomer who was one of Britain's leading space experts/scientist, died when the balloon plunged 660 feet (200 meters) shortly after it took off from near the village of Zelve, in Nevsehir province, for a tour of the Cappadocia region this morning.

May 30, 2009 Employment tribuna

Received acknowledgement of my   employment tribunal intentions from Colin MacKinnon. At the time of updating this timeline I realise that I need to find all the files relating to employment tribunal SBS’s lawyer Andrew Maynard. This information will be on seized laptop.

May 30, 2009 (receive response from Colin Mackinnon

( “POLE”, Swahili for sorry) Colin says let me have a word with Tony to find out what the problem is/are I shall come back to you next week all the best Colin.

Just reading the above letter from Colin Mackinnon, it's easy to recognise the contrast in characters; I’ve always felt that Colin is a most reasonable gentleman. Unfortunately, when all this got very messy,  despite being the qualified pilot/director, therefore, the one who should be addressing aviation matters he disappeared from the scene.

On that score, I am highly disappointed in Colin.  All is not lost, as I suspect years under a lot of pressure from a dominating Mr Pascoe.  It would have been preferable all-round if Mr Mackinnon had possessed the required backbone. Of course, this raises the question of why Mr Mackinnon allowed his non-pilot partner to involve himself in matters of aviation that he was not qualified to handle. It seems that Mr Mackinnon had allowed himself to be hijacked in that regard.

On the 15th of February 2009, having just landed the 450 equipped with a rapid deflation system,

Tony Pascoe was a passenger on a flight with pilot Ramsey. Myself having landed first, we were able to observe Pascoe's flight come in for a landing. Although I had had an uneventful landing, the same could not be said for Pascoe's flight, which turned out to be a rather fast, protracted drag landing.

Dragged landing refers to the basket coming in and momentarily touching the earth with the bottom before tipping over 90°onto its side. see photographs that balloons exported to Africa are reinforced with runners on the forward-facing side that are often dragged along the ground. Nowadays such skids are common elsewhere.

With my balloon deflated and secure, given that they had landed approximately 100 m away, I went over to see that everybody was okay, as there appeared to be some commotion. A rather red-faced, watery-eyed, seriously shaken pilot approached me as I walked over, stating, “We must get F…… rapid deflation system in these balloons.” It was very obvious that he was seriously distressed, as were his passengers. It can’t be denied that at the time, Tony Pascoe also appeared to be somewhat shaken by the reported 18 knt landing.

Attempting to calm things down with the somewhat incoherent pilot, I stepped in to ensure that everybody was okay. The pilot in command just wanted to talk and unload his experience on me,  he was certanly  not in a fit state to be dealing with passengers; had he done so, matters may have deteriorated.

Not wanting to make too much of a scene than it already was, for PR purposes, I simply and calmly indicated that we would conduct a flight debriefing once we were back at base. I felt that it was not a topic to be discussed in front of passengers. Given that nobody was physically hurt, I felt that this was logical & appropriate, not least the professional way of handling the situation.

Later, as pilots and our 32  passengers convened under our favourite acacia tree for the customary post-flight champagne breakfast, Mr Pascoe took me to one side; in no time at all, I was subjected to gesticulating fingers painting towards me “What's this about you wanting to conduct a flight debriefing back at base".

Giving me no time to explain Pascoe elaborate that I had no authority to conduct such analysis; how very strange.

I understand that Mr Pascoe had spoken to the young pilot, who was now most uneasy about discussing earlier events; it was as if nothing had ever happened; No debriefing took place.

Debriefing after  any incident, be it Balloon or Boeing 777, is an accepted aviation practice. So what......... or who could be the problem at SBS?

February 15, 2009

Nik came to me looking rather distressed; (And it won't be the last time)  the balloon that he had flown that day had some frayed suspension flying wires; should these break whilst in the air, the entire aircraft integrity  would be seriously compromised.

His dilemma was that he was afraid to record this serious defect in the logbook as it would instantly ground that aircraft until rectified. He knew that this would not go down well with the directors. I explained that he didn't have a choice, which, of course, he knew anyway; I put it to him, "Would you fly your daughter in that basket"? Without hesitation, he blurted out, NO WAY, to which I responded, “Well, Nik, there's your answer.

February 25, 2009:  

        First & Last Safety Report Issued:   The countdown to the end of my flying career commences As does the countdown to  two Further Balloon crashes.

I issued my first safety report, and it would be my last. With the knowledge of SBS’s distinct aversion to changes, I had gone easy; this is to work towards other matters later.  There had been verbal discussions relating to the lack of appropriate deflation systems in the past.  I was convinced that the standard deflation system normally used for much smaller balloons was a prototype for the balloons in question (size). These parachutes did not fit the orifice that they were intended for. This alerted me to the fact that these balloons may be non-standard and not previously tested by the manufacturer.

  The two balloons’ circular parachute valves in question leaked hot air profusely.  As one might comprehend, this contributed to higher fuel consumption and flight profile/controllability Issues.    Despite extensive  investigations, I have failed to find any other operator in the world operating such balloons with the lesser deflation system (deflation parachute). RDS comes as a standard fit in this category of passenger balloons.

  Having more than twenty years piloting experience, including having held the position of Chief pilot in numerous locations (flown in the UK, Canada, USA, Egypt,  Nepal, and Australia), my experience/analytical ability, surrounding the  intricacies, far outweighed those of my local colleagues/it was a case of bush pilots working alongside myself in the Serengeti.

Some of these pilots possessed little, more often than not, no in-depth, varied experience. These junior pilots were reluctant to openly voice their concerns with the somewhat intimidating non-pilot director Tony Pascoe, though they would confide in me from time to time.  Indeed, Mohammed, a respected local and chief pilot, was more than willing to go along with my advice of taking more fuel on board. However, that was only until Mr Pascoe arrived in camp.

This didn’t make sense; I have no reason to be scared of anybody, particularly when assuming my role as a pilot in command of any aircraft (PIC), regardless of who owns it. It is well acknowledged amongst professionals that disaster awaits those who fly by committee, more so with nonqualified  ground-based individuals.

Build notes Ben to re=edit

March 16, 2009:

Arrived in Kathmandu Nepal, ever so stunned at events, we organise our accommodation.

March 29, 2009:

Receive news of my mother’s death, we fly to the UK

April 15, 2009:

Depart UK.

April 16, 2009:  

Arrive in Kathmandu, Over the coming days spend time reconstructing my photographic website. I hold professional equipment. (Later had to sell, in order to pay bills pay for flights etc, all practical but nevertheless heartbreaking)

April 21, 2009: Report

Not at all satisfied with what took place at SBS, I felt the need to put together a full report on events that took place during my time in the Serengeti. To do so I used Macintosh iweb program.

My intention at that time was to piece together all the facts and timings. All statements are backed up  with copies of e-mails that had been exchanged between both myself and SBS, video and audio recordings along with photographs are also presented

At that time there was never intention to  publicise this website, as I intended to maintain it as a locked site. This was the site where only those of whom were involved shall be given the user-name and the password to gain entry. Towards the end of May, confident that although there will still work to be done, I did have a credible  presentation. At the time of building the site, I have reason to believe that co owner Colin McKinnon (   Colin was a man that I viewed as straight talking type of the character) was not fully aware of what took place, as he was on holidays in India at that time.

May 27, 2009: Request constructive dialogue

Sent a confidential e-mail to SBS enquiring to their willingness to enter into constructive dialogue.

May 27, 2009:  reply from Tony Pascoe “I think we have all moved on”

(they certainly had, two more accidents are about to take place)

I received an e-mail from Tony Pascoe, indicating his total unwillingness to cooperate, with a single line saying, “I think we have all moved on”.

I felt that this rather inadequate  response, displayed behaviour of a insulting & dismissive nature towards what most would normally be considered to be a very serious matter indeed. His incorrect evaluation of my situation along with his malicious actions have had devastating life changing affect on our lives.

Although we did not know it at this time,  every aspect on both sides is about to get far worse, unfortunately on an un-imaginable scale. In that instance I refer  to yet more accidents & passenger deaths. In many ways I’m  merely the messenger   perhaps more precisely, qualified reporting safety officer that had  attempted to steer SBS  in a safer direction, yet in doing so, subjected to   ensuing threats of  both   financial  and life threatening nature.

As SBS’s agenda of intimation gather strength, come November 2010 we would  have no alliterative but to go into hiding, indeed to some extent, that remains the situation to this day.

March 13, 2009: Salaries paid in full:

We depart the National Park, and go to SBS's head office in Arusha, We overnight in Arusha hotel. The following day  I have to visit SBS's Arusha office to sort out a few matters, one of which is my pension fund contribution refund.

Please note that given that deductions are taken from my salary, I feel that I would be correct in assuming that I am an employee rather than what Mr Pascoe would later claim at an employment tribunal (prehearing) that I was a contractor. I was also paid holiday pay.

I have no alliterative but to enter into a written agreement with SBS,  in doing so, authorising them to collect  these funds on my behalf. Assured that this would take three months to sort out, I’am quite happy with this, all sounded quite reasonable.

Please note: That once I commenced employment tribunal proceedings in the UK, refund of pension stalled.   Some paperwork was reported lost! E-mails and telephone calls unanswered.  After applying some quantitative pressure on SBS  I was finally paid in full 16 months later, or 13 months late. I view this as retribution.

March 14, 2009:

We move to Kia Lodge, overnight stay.

March 15 2009: Depart Tanzania.

We depart to Dar Es Salaam Airport for flight to Kathmandu, should be going on holidays to UK but with so much luggage it was best to go to KTM first.  Note SBS were paying for flight to the UK initially.   During the taped conversation at the time of my sacking, Tony  Pascoe informs me that he’s been in touch with the airline to seek assurances that I can change my ticket, booking date and destination. Once this is confirmed he agrees to pay the $100 charge.

Serengeti Safari Passenger Balloons Dangerously Low Levels of fuel

6 January 2009: Flight report:-

Although our flight duration was just 1.1 hours (66 minutes), both balloons had used all four fuel tanks. MVX, a 450,000 ft.³ balloon, the largest in SBS’s fleet, had just enough remaining fuel for two minutes of flight time, whereas Nick, who was in command of the sixteen passenger 425 balloon, reported (over VHF) that he was onto his fifth tank; this proves other pilots were taking a 5th tank against company policy.

In the final analysis, both pilots are in agreement that the low remaining fuel quantities were due to the higher fuel consumption used during our departure; herefore, we had no reason to have any concern regarding balloon *performance” end of quote.

This highlights normal fuel usage for such large balloons. Obviously, there are no signs of any of the mandatory 50% reserve fuel.

“You know the phrase ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’?” Edmondson says. “In fact, it’s not enough to not shoot them. You have to hug the messenger and let them know how much you need that feedback. That way you can be sure that they feel safe enough to tell you the truth next time.”

— Daniel Coyle

February 2009 Tony Pascoe arrives from the UK. At this time, the world recession is the big news. With Tony being quite a wealthy man, it may be that he's been hit badly by the stock exchange plumifing  shares. prices    Just prior to the above news surfaced, Colin McKinnon had just brought in a relief pilot from Belgium.   Rameses is a young guy, about 25; however, he has been around balloons since childhood. I found him to be a most present character and respectable pilot, perhaps a little bit gun-ho at times, but only due to his misplaced fondness for his homegrown nickname of speedy Gonzales, apparently something he had earned owing to always flying when others had cancelled due to freshening wind speed!

Soon after his arrival, the young man got agitated regarding not being paid on time; like me, he’s very much aware of how notorious balloon companies can be in this regard. At the one-month mark of his time in the Serengeti, naturally, he was expecting to get paid; however, he did not. I reassured him that SBS had never let me down on salary payments. I even went on to elaborate that SBS are some of the best I've come across in that regard. Understandably, the first payment is always delayed, as it's only due to time-consuming bank setup procedures; not long after he received what was owed without any problem. Even to this day ( Feb 2024), I have no difficulty giving credit where credit is due.

Bigger than you thought? Basket is 5 m long and weighs 900 kg before loading.

Entire aircraft fully loaded = 4500kg

Build note Requires editing and repositioning

On the day of my sacking, Nik came screaming into my house once more, telling me that he had seen Pascoe in this mood before and was expecting to be sacked for grounding the above basket.

February 2009 Tony Pascoe arrives from the UK. At this time, the world recession is the big news. With Tony being quite a wealthy man, it may be that he's been hit badly by the stock exchange and falling prices of shares.  Just prior to the above news surfaced, Colin McKinnon had just brought in a relief pilot from Belgium.   Rameses is a young guy, about 25; however, he has been around balloons since childhood. I found him to be a most present character and respectable pilot, perhaps a little bit gun-ho at times, but only due to his misplaced fondness for his homegrown nickname of speedy Gonzales, apparently something he had earned owing to always flying when others had cancelled due to freshening wind speed!

Soon after his arrival, the young man got agitated regarding not being paid on time; like me, he’s very much aware of how notorious balloon companies can be in this regard. At the one-month mark of his time in the Serengeti, naturally, he was expecting to get paid; however, he did not. I reassured him that SBS had never let me down on salary payments. I even went on to elaborate that SBS are some of the best I've come across in that regard. Understandably, the first payment is always delayed, as it's only due to time-consuming bank setup procedures not long after he received what was owed without any problem. Even to this day ( Feb 2024), I have no difficulty giving credit where credit is due.

I doubt any SBS staff member would argue that over the last 22 months that we spent in the Serengeti, both Nita and I entertained the visiting directors on each occasion they arrived. Both appear to have an appreciation for the superb Asian cooking that Nita became renowned for. Similarly, we also entertained all the pilots in the same fashion; my next-door neighbour, Mr Nik, only had to smell a curry in the early stages of cooking before he would appear on the doorstep. Nik was desperately missing his wife Monique and his equally beautiful daughter Tawny a great deal,  we had no problem in accommodating him;

During the day, we hardly got five minutes of rest before he would be back again. On one particular day, just out of interest, Nita decided to count how many times he came around. He always forewarned of his intended arrival by shouting hody-hody-hody, which is a wonderful traditional Masai term used to forewarn others of their pending arrival, something that the Masai tribe used as a matter of courtesy, also helped to avoid being speared.

Unbeknown to Nik, bless him! We had a nickname for him of hody-hody-hody. On that particular day, we counted no less than 14 visits, which was beginning to stretch even my courtesy. Nick was not renowned for bringing a beer with him, yet he had no problem taking a few homes with him!

Tony made his way from Arusha HQ, visiting the operational base deep in the Serengeti to our base of Seronera. I was outside as he and his wife arrived arrived. Once we got past the normal pleasantries,  Tony and I walked around to my accommodation in order to put the kettle on! Whilst his wife, Manita? A slim, rather soft-spoken lady chose to go straight to the director's house but not before accepting our invitation to join me and Nita for an evening meal.  

As we walked, Tony started to discuss the world's financial crisis with some urgency.  It was obvious that this recent event was foremost on his mind; it was as if he wanted to talk so as to unload.  As he did so,  he became red-faced, at times stumbling for words, drooling. “Nigel, this is very serious, I can tell you” Many have no idea how serious this is going to get", in a much louder voice. “It’ll get much worse; I can tell you that.”

  Now, as Ramses had just arrived after the invitation from Colin, it was obvious that Tony was not in total agreement with his temporary employment. Colin had indicated in an e-mail prior to Ramsay's arrival that he may have made a mistake, indicating that we might not need him as first thought; however, he felt compelled to honour his word. Obviously, Colin had made this decision long before the ramifications of the world financial crisis were fully understood, let alone in the public eye, I might add, before all the passenger cancellations poured in like never before.

While in Arusha, Tony had witnessed that office worker Gloria had a pile of identical pieces of paper on a desk; she was busy adding the contents to the booking chart on her computer. Apparently, Tony asked, “ Gloria, if they were all new bookings”?  ‘No, Mr.Tony”, she replied, “these are passenger cancellations”  That news must have sent his blood pressure ballistic, and yes, I could understand that.

As Tony and I sat on my deck doing what I normally do, drinking tea, Baboons were running riot in the nearby trees; Giraffes could be seen in the distance.  It soon became obvious that he was understandably very concerned about the dwindling passenger numbers, “Nigel, I'll tell you what's wrong with this place “too many bloody pilots, that's what's wrong" Now he was glaring at me in the eye, his own eyes very watery, his face almost crimson.

This is all very interesting, as a few weeks before his partner Colin was visiting the base, he enquired as to whom the new boy was pointing towards, a new local recruit. At the time, I was most surprised, thinking that should know of this guy.  I explained to Colin that he was the new trainee pilot, slapping his hand on his knee. “What trainee,” asked Colin, I don’t know anything about this"  I explained that it was something that Tony had organised and that this young guy was recruited from the National Parks office, rumoured to be related to some highly influential National Parks official. Not to mysteriously, this is indeed the very Department that gives  SBS permission to fly within the National park.

One must take into account that the local Tanzanian pilots would be far cheaper than bringing in us Western pilots. This creates confusion. Here we have a company flying some of the largest hot air balloons in the world; they are on record as the most expensive balloon ride in the World, yet want to bring in a total novice who may have to go to  USA complete to complete a relatively modest amount of training, thereafter hot-footing back to Tanzania be granted some license.

With obvious good reason, this system is seriously floored. Once any new recruit is back on home soil, all that is required is a small amount of rubber stamping by the local yet not up-to-speed CAA. Once these dangerously flowed formalities are completed,   he is free to take responsibility for flying high-volume passenger balloons in the Serengeti.

To gain type-rating qualification to fly such a large balloon, one must demonstrate calendar time and/or hours step by step before being granted a higher-rated license.  When I travelled that journey, I was initially licensed to fly a five-man balloon referred to as a 105 (150,000 ft.³). I think I had to do the further 100 hours on that type before being able to take a test to fly a ten-man balloon with a volume of up to 210,000 ft.³ going on to repeat that process before being allowed into the 400-plus category.

Allowing a recent trainee to go straight into the 400 category could be interpreted as putting profit before passenger safety, which may come back and bite!

Unbeknown to Tony Or Colin, Nick Duffield and I had come around to thinking that this guy was not pilot material. From my observations, he failed to demonstrate any interest in flight preparation, was not interested in getting the rigging of the balloon correct, and only wanted to get his hands on the burners to be situated in the driving seat, so to speak.  

Unsurprisingly, the best way to become a balloon pilot is to spend a year as a ground crew first. Again, that position appeared beneath this individual; some people will never make a pilot, but we felt we had found one in this guy. Keep this in mind when reading accident reports and survivors' accounts.

As prearranged, Tony and his wife joined us at about 6 PM. Having not met Tony's wife before, there was a bit of catching up to do, and certainly for Nita, it was a pleasant change of company for once, rather than the evening being dominated by male talk,  for once she might escape ballooning talk.

My boss had a liking for Kilimanjaro beer; in fact, any beer for that matter, I am a one bottle per night, man. Besides, I also have to think about aviation regulations and the consumption of alcohol in the lead-up to a flight. From the early afternoon conversation, Tony was aware that I wanted to discuss the following year's salary. Like himself, I'm concerned about the falling passenger numbers, particularly as most of our salary is derived from flight bonuses. Along with other pilots, I recognised that we could easily stand to lose approximately $20,000 per year if we remained with the same targets. I make a policy not to discuss such topics when alcohol is so abundant and when your boss has just consumed five bottles. It was getting late, and the problem pilot that it was approaching 9:30 PM, well past my normal bedtime. At this point, Tony brings up the topic of the following year's salary, saying, “Come on, we got 10 min; we can get this sorted, as there will not be a lot to discuss!

I calmly requested that we leave this topic until the following day when we could do this over lunch. It appeared that he wanted to have some confrontation as he now brought up the topic of my insistence on taking five fuel tanks on each flight. Despite appealing for common sense to prevail, all while explaining the necessity for carrying this amount of fuel, Tony started to get on his high horse by attempting to convince me that as he is a director of the company, he has total authority over pilots and, therefore could overrule any of his pilots, even to the extent of fuel quantities to be carried on the company's aircraft.

Any pilot reading this will now be in fits of laughter; in fact, who needs to be a pilot to see how ridiculous this situation is going to get? Next comes a rather bizarre statement, and I quote, “Nigel, it costs money to fly fuel" Well, there's no argument there, as it just might.

I decided to try to quell what was becoming a serious, heated discussion, particularly as he is a non-pilot with no aviation qualifications to his name; he was wading into potentially dangerous territory by pressing a few wrong buttons in his obvious attempt to provoke me. Mindful that my piloting duties in the following morning demand that I shall be getting out of bed by 4 AM, I have no intentions of going to bed ruffled and therefore politely draw his attention to the fact of my upcoming flight and that it was time every good pilot should be in bed. As soon as he departed, determined to stay calm, I took a few deep breaths and decided to put all this down to the fact that he had been drinking at his usual rate of knots.

After the Tanzanian civil aviation authority had taken a deeper look at SBS’s first fatal accident, I was appointed one of the two safety officers. On February 25th 2009, I issued my first safety notice.

At the same time, Nick Duffield was appointed assistant chief pilot. Nick was certainly the obvious choice, as he had been the chief pilot with SBS in the past.  It had long been recognised that Muhammad was having difficulty maintaining this post. More often than not, whenever there was a civil aviation inspection, Mohammed, affectionately known as Moody, would disappear for a while thereafter, failing to return until after the coast was clear!

Wary of the fact that SBS  displayed a serious hostility towards anyone daring to question the way anything got done, I had my work cut out. I knew that I was going to have to tread very carefully if I was going to stand any chance of rectifying many safety matters.  For this reason, my initial report was purposely toned down. Knowing that If I was going to stand any chance of doing any good, I needed to get my foot through the door long before tackling the more serious issues. In that report, I brought to the management's attention that matters relating to electrical ties were on the triggers of all fire extinguishers, even those placed on or around the company's Balloons. I insisted that these locks be removed for obvious reasons. Gas handling was another issue; the lack of adequate training was another. I highlighted situations of ground crew refuelling gas tanks (which necessitates venting vapour into the atmosphere) using their cell phones. Again, I got taken to task on my theory of it being dangerous, simply madness.

keeping in mind our water is pumped up from the  hippopotamus pool.  The company's water filtration, a reverse osmosis system, had ceased working for quite some time. While we waited for new parts to be flown in, we had no alternative but to buy bottled water. With an obvious shortage, and certainly not enough to keep up with the regular visitor's tea-drinking habits, I took it upon myself to go out and purchase a box containing one dozen 1.5 L bottles of water; however, these were soon distributed amongst other colleagues.

I was summoned to the office a day later to meet Mr Pascoe. Upon arrival, I found one very irritated SBS director. Mr Pascoe had found my petty cash slip recording the purchase of the above-mentioned water. Tony was once more red-faced, blurting out, “Nigel, these are very hard times for this company; I’ll have you know” that your drinking water consumption is excessive".

For a short time, I was silent, thinking to myself, surely he must be joking; I was waiting for the punchline. It soon transpired that this would certainly not be a laughing matter; this was a very serious case of misappropriation of company funds. I was dumbfounded,

I don't mind admitting that this tested my patience beyond belief; there was no denying that I was now irritated by these stupid observations. Whilst I felt like strangling this stupid little man,  I refrained; however,   yes, I did bang my hand on the table a couple of times as I was making my point, thinking to myself, God help us all, if the company is so hard up that it can't afford enough drinking water to keep pilots hydrated, what chance have we got of improving upon dangerously low fuel levels.

Later in the same day, Belgian pilot Rameses was repairing a basket or, more to the point, the broken flying wires referred to earlier make no mistake Caesar critical components if the basket was to stay attached to the balloon. These are the wires that support the entire payload of the passenger basket and all its equipment. In essence, these are suspension wires. Should they fail during flight,  there is every chance that the basket would plummet to the ground, there would be more than a set of dentures flying out of the basket, and the occupants would not stand a chance.   Earlier, Nik and  I had gone over the manufacturer’s flight/maintenance manual. I recall that whilst we are authorised to do minor repairs, the same cannot be said, for this crucial component was off-limits, with the legally binding manual stating any such repairs to suspension wires had to be conducted by the manufacturer.

In all my twenty years of flying, I had never come across a basket with damaged flying wires. We, pilots, had come to the conclusion that such damage only came about owing to the very windy inflations. Keep in mind that during the inflation process, the baskets are held back by a restraint attached to a four-wheel drive.

At the same time that the basket is restrained,  the pilot attempts to heat up the balloon to an acceptable temperature for flight. In doing so, the envelope, which by now is nothing more than a huge sail, tries its best to drag the basket and its 17 occupants around the ground, often tipping the basket on one end and then the other. This, in turn, creates an enormous amount of stress on these flying wires, evidently beyond design limitations.

Mr Pascoe witnesses the repair taking place. As the pilot had to remove the thick leather hide protecting these wires on the bottom of the basket, one had to pull out and discard the old industrial staples that held this leather to the underside of the basket. It was obvious that the dollar signs started clicking by his eyes once more, instructing that these staples be picked up and reused in the repair. I felt that the man had lost his mind and that the quicker he departed the Serengeti, the better.

9th March 2009  Capt  Nik thinks he's going to be sacked by Tony Pascoe

It was around 9:30, 10 o'clock on 9th March 09. Once more, Nik came racing around to my house in panic mode. He looked very pale. He explained that he'd just seen Tony in one of his moods and suspected that he was about to be sacked that morning. Nik’s reasoning behind his way of thinking was that he had earlier grounded the above basket and refused to fly it.

He also felt so strongly about the dangerous state of this particular basket of flying wires that he made it all very legal by recording this damage in the aircraft logbook as an aircraft defect. By doing so, it would have become illegal for anyone to take that basket into the air until authorised repairs had been completed in line with the manufacturer's directive. Nevertheless, shortly after Nik received an e-mail from director Colin McKinnon entitled “I have a problem," Nick was given a bit of a lecture about grounding balloons and ordered that he wasn't to do this again.

Nik explained that he had seen Tony in this mood once before, just before sacking a previous pilot; he was sure he would get dismissed that morning.  Thirty minutes or so later, Nik and Tony came rushing around to my place, asking me if I'd seen the forbidden company revolvers and ammunition. These horrible things were passed from pilot to pilot according to who was not going on holiday, etc. Apparently, their acquisition had occurred many years after a previous pilot had sacked one ground crew. Later someone broke into his accommodation and slit his throat whilst he was sleeping.  Thankfully, the poor guy survived, however unsurprisingly, he acquired a squeaky voice. The possession of such firearms was illegal; it was all hush-hush. I hate the things; I don't even like seeing a child with a toy gun.

It soon transpired that these firearms had been kept in a big storage container and hidden away. Everybody seemed relieved. Shortly after that event, the Askrari ( security guard )came around to my house to inform me that Mr Tony needed to see me in the office. Nick was still with me at the time; he looked at me like a guilty dog. Suspecting the worst yet mindful of how Mr Pascoe works, prior to making my way to the office, I decided to place a voice-activated dictaphone in my top pocket, all very discreet as it almost resembles a cellphone.

On arrival in the office, Tony was sitting behind what would normally be Martin's desk (operations manager). An office chair was strategically placed in front where I was invited to sit. Tony;-“No easy way of doing this, Nigel we are terminating your employment contract”) I was handed a letter stating that I was dismissed; however, no written reason was ever given. Fortunately, the voice recorder kept full details of what had taken place. Interestingly, Tony is heard saying, “I don't know what you're doing going around taking photographs of our balloon; I suspect you have ulterior motives" We were given just 24 hours to pack and depart the Serengeti National Park; Tony had already booked our flight out of the park for the following morning.

Going by the tape recording, I had spent just under  15 minutes with Tony. So disgusted with his misplaced action, I refused to shake hands with him and made him aware that he had shown his true colours.

Upon returning to my house, I found Pilots Nick and Feeral had been keeping Nita company. I informed them of what had taken place, Nik appeared to be astounded “You're joking". Nita was very upset, and why not? After all, she had given up nurse training to come out to the Serengeti, all on the understanding that all was safe and secure. With just 24 hours to go, we start packing an enormous amount of belongings.

Nik suggests that we drive over to talk to Richard and Sean, with whom he was very good friends. Richard is the chief vet of req edit two weary; both he and his wife, having spent many years in the Serengeti, are very knowledgeable in this field.

Richard is an accomplished fixed pilot. He has such an aircraft at his disposal in order to carry out his work in the national park Along with others he also had strong reservations about the aircraft used for the parachuting side of SBS not dissimilar to those of others mentioned earlier.

Richard's wife, Sean, a very jolly lady, was very keen to settle us down with a cup of tea and biscuits whilst we explained what had just taken place. Upon hearing our account, she was disgusted, informing me that they (SBS) had lots of problems with pilots, or more precisely, pilots had had problems with SBS. Arms folded across her broad chest, she said they'd heard far too many stories of the goings-on at SBS particularly how they treat pilots.

I explained to Richard and Sean that Nita & I only had twenty-four hours to pack and depart. At that point, as well as being disgusted, they were both adamant that this should not be the case. Sean stated the obvious fact that I'd done nothing wrong and, furthermore, for that matter, had not done anything illegal. Therefore, I had every right to remain within the Serengeti until all my salaries were paid in full. Reference was made that these guys at SBS needed showing once -all that they could no longer continue to be bullyboys,  a title that they had apparently become renowned for.

After about one & half hours, we made our exit and headed back to SBS's base. As we got close to the base, we were driving down the dusty track into the base; we saw Martin and Tony driving towards us in an old Land Rover. I asked Nick to stop, at the same time indicating to Martin that I wanted him to stop also.

As Nik and I return to base we met Tony Pascoe

As Martin got out of his vehicle, I took his place in the driver’s seat before setting about a long conversation with Tony. I explained that I had taken what I considered to be sound advice and had had time to think of what had taken place earlier; therefore, I was not going to be departing within his outrageously stipulated 24 hours. I made it clear that I would be remaining in the Serengeti and occupying the same accommodation until all payments were made to me and deposited in our bank account.

Tony Pascoe says“I'll have you both removed by force;

I could see that Tony was getting anxious, twitching & frowning, his face again going crimson before making outlandish threats, “I'll have you both removed by force; we will dump you both at the park gates if I have to" to which I replied “let it be, let's make this a foreign office matter if you like Tony”  Tony was nervously quick in his reply “I'm not scared of the foreign office I have dealt with them before. Now I wonder who he had in mind to remove us by force. Doing such would almost certainly send both Nita and myself to our deaths; lions, cheetahs, and leopards have no respect for borders, only drawn on a map.

Slowly, I tried to reason with him. Now, with his right hand propping up his chin, he remained silent for a while, gazing skyward at the same time. It was obvious that he knew that I was determined to stay put, yet at the same time, he was racking his brain about what to do next.  He then muttered something about the possibility of paying me with the use of his credit card. However, we were talking of a figure that would normally be way outside the realm of any credit card. He was quick, possibly smart, replying, "Ah yes, that is normal; however, my spending power is far greater than most.

Regardless of his boastful spending power! It wasn't long before we agreed that a credit card transaction would be impossible; therefore, the only way for my salary, along with the so-called flight bonuses, could be paid would be through their bank account in the UK.  On that note, we parted on the understanding that he would come back and see me later that night,  however not before he enquired, “As you're not going to use the flights that I have already paid for “, who's going to pay for them.”

I wasted no time telling him the obvious, pointing out that as he had absolutely no valid reason for booking flights for our departure without my knowledge and agreement, any costs incurred due to his belligerent attitude would be his. This resulted in a huff and puff; he was now speechless, his head facing down, yet his watery, bloodshot eyes rolled upward, staring at me.

That night, Tony arrived and invited me to join him in the office in order to make an international call to their UK accountant in the hope of working out a payment strategy. His name was Andrew, who seemed to be quite a gentleman and wanted to quell the situation as quickly as possible. Andrew explained that he had all our bank account details and the amount which Tony and I had agreed to be correct; he went on to assure me that he would be transferring the agreed sum into our account as soon as possible.

He went on to enquire whether, as I had received this information directly from himself, I would be agreeable to depart the Serengeti the following morning as Tony planned. Certainly, Andrew came across as a very genuine sort of guy. However, Tony Pascoe is his boss, he  ultimately calls the shots; who knows what’s going to happen once I agree to depart? With Tony at my side listening in to what was going on, I conveyed these thoughts to Andrew, stating that  I intend to remain just as long as it takes to transfer the funds owed into our account. That was the end of the conversation.

I talked to Tony for a little while longer, explaining that he didn't really have a problem; after all, what was I going to do, what could I do, what was the urgency in removing me from the Serengeti? It was going to take a day or two to pack, and that's exactly what we did. Of course, for Tony, this was terrible,  for during my time in his employ, I had not only seen one other pilot depart on such unreasonable short notice, I had witnessed many others, mainly driver/reps, in Deedas, Godbless, frank & Amissi,  come to mind what there could've been others are yes Wariliga, who said no to sex with Martin local operations manager, that’s eight of us who had lost our employment over the course of just twenty-three months.  I doubt that Tony had ever experienced anyone standing their ground until today!

On 13 March 2010, Four days after my sacking, we received confirmation that the agreed sum had indeed been deposited into our account in the UK. I informed Tony that I was ready to go soon after our travel arrangements were made for the following day.

During the four days leading up to our departure, Tony and I had one or two conversations. The one that stands out took place outside the office, close to several gas storage tanks. What I was about to hear did not sit squarely with me.

Tony Pascoe:  “Nigel, if you're thinking of going to the Tanzanian civil aviation authority, I can tell you now you'd be wasting your time; we fill their pockets” I have just phoned our friends at the civil aviation to warn them to expect a call from you, really you will be wasting your time, we have friends.

Tony Pascoe:  “I’ll see that you never fly again

A further warning came in that if I didn't go quietly, he would tarnish my reputation within the hot air balloon rides industry; in an attempt to cement his ruthless threats, he went on to say, “I’ll see that you never fly again” Such a nice man.

I have not worked since.

At the time of writing, it's almost two years on, yet looking back, whilst my sacking was outrageous in the first place, I have the strongest feeling that the two above threats have undoubtedly provided me with the determination to pursue this case. On the other side of the coin, had I been sacked for legitimate reasons, I would have had no problem in holding my hands up and walking away.  

Arusha office Mary

The morning came for my departure. I request permission from Martin to use one of my good friends and company representative to transport us to the nearby airfield. Permission  granted,  many of the saddened, rather bewildered ground crew helped load up the Landcruiser with our luggage. Before doing so, I gave away what we could not carry, including a PC, film scanner, flatscreen and more; Mr Nik appeared to be the best beneficiary of all this.

Karumi delivered us to the airstrip situated less than a kilometre away;  a few minutes later, Martin and Tony Pascoe arrived; it  now transpires that we are to share the same flight down to Arusha. We are each polite towards each other, but that's as far as it goes. We struggled to get all our belongings into this very small aircraft, soon realising that we had to leave one box behind. Thankfully, our friend Karumi gave assurance that he has a friend who works as a tour driver and is heading for Arusha that day; he assured us that our boxes would be delivered to us at our hotel that night; what a guy.

We needed to visit the company HQ in Arusha and go over paperwork with Mary so as to secure our refund of my compulsory pension deductions contributions. It is explained that this process would take three months, which I found to be quite normal and acceptable. I had already recorded Tony giving me his word that he would ensure that this would be dealt with properly. However, I need to sign a form giving SBS permission to accept my funds on my behalf. In turn, he promised to transfer the full amount into an account of my choice once he received such funds.

On arrival at the office, Mary handed me an almost identical notice of termination of employment letter; I asked why she did so. She explained that I may need it in order to get a refund. It still felt rather strange, yet I went along with it. She needed to transfer some documents regarding the pension fund to my computer and did so using a pen drive. From thereon, I could print off the needed documents and proofs of what was to happen. Many weeks later, back in Nepal, I realised she had inadvertently downloaded the contents of what appeared to be a 4 GB pen drive. Amongst many files, I was to find several years of accounting documents held within, hardly the sort of information one should give to somebody you've just sacked! Who said there is no God.

The time came to head to Kilimanjaro International Airport for our flight to Dar Es Salaam, where we would connect with our flight to Kathmandu once again, where we would experience a thirteen-hour stopover—the last few days had been exhausting and highly emotional. Here I am losing what amounts to a $80,000 per annum position for taking photographs that were intended to assist this company in improving its safety standards. On top of that, to add insult to injury, I'm faced with a vindictive, some might say deranged ex-employer  threatening to tarnish my reputation within the industry,  

Whilst Nita remains a strong ally, there were times of understandable weakening. Occasionally, she shows some aggression towards me for not having a job, asking what are we going to do now?  I lost count of how many times during the trip home she said that she wished she had never given up her nurse training back in York. “Nigel, what are we going to do now we lost everything? I loved the Serengeti; I’ve made some good friends, particularly  with the ground crew.”

I felt miserable; I really felt for Nita; there was no argument; she was absolutely right; she had every reason to be angry.

  As she is 17 years younger than me, I’ve always promised her that I’m determined to make a rich lady so that she wouldn’t have to worry about finances once I’m gone; for now, that now seems to be blown away, and we both know it.

Once we boarded our flight to   Dar, it was time to rest and comfort each other as much as possible. Nita is a great lady; from time to time, she recovers her composure and is very supportive of my feelings. This has been a roller-coaster ride for both of us; we need to get our feet firmly back on the ground.

Having been through similar circumstances whilst working for Peter in Sri Lanka and also suffering bounce pay cheques in Chicago; I can see that history is repeating itself far too often. Even before these two, there had been countless others throughout my 20 years of flying bloody balloons. I've lost count of how much money is owed to me in lost salaries.

I wonder if the likes of Serengeti Balloon Safaris ever give a second thought about the inappropriate upheaval that they have caused to the people’s lives, or is it simply a case of once out of sight, out of mind? I told myself that this one is not going to get away as lightly as the rest; the time is long overdue to stand up to these wayward operators.

Once we arrived at  Doha airport, mindful that we had another 13 hours of sitting around, it was time to visit Starbucks, which could supply a rather large quality cup of tea. Having left Serengeti behind, it was time to talk rationally now that half of our journey was completed. Given the history, we've decided that we shall not be discussing this matter openly with others for the simple reason that I really don't want any outside input.

I've come around to this thinking after informing a close friend of my time with Peter Stuart Sri Lanka, the very one who had insisted that I should fly an unregistered and uninsured aircraft and more.

At that time, my well-intentioned friend's advice was to forget about it, put it behind me and move on. Even as far back as 2004, I was sick and tired of being messed around by the inadequately running hot air balloon companies and not receiving payments for work done.

With the above in mind, we were going to inform friends that owing to the world financial crisis, we had taken extended holidays. Neither of us felt at rest deceiving friends.; however, they are not pilots. Friends don't have to study to pass exams in order to acquire licenses. These licenses are only granted on the understanding that we accept the responsibilities that are attached to them.  It is my attachment to these values that, regardless of threats,  keeps me committed to maintaining standards that are only designed to advance the safety of both pilots and our passengers.  

April 2009

Just prior to being sacked, we were due to go on holiday to the UK. With so much luggage, we felt it would be better to go directly to our home in Nepal before going to the UK later. Six weeks after arriving in Nepal, I received the news that my mother had passed away after suffering a heart attack; she was 79. I have mixed feelings about all this; it is true, had I not been sacked, I would have gone to England and therefore have seen Mum before she died. Really, this is just the way the cookie crumbles. In all honesty, I don't blame anybody for not being able to see her as planned; that's life; there is always a last time that one sees one mother.

Three weeks later, my wife and I are back in Kathmandu. Thankfully, I have had time to think of what I had taken back in Tanzania.  Despite a few moments of despair, Nita has been my rock, yet she can’t hide the nervousness I hear in her voice.  On top of that, I would imagine that a blind man might be able to see the immense worry on the face.  The conversation regarding the threats to tarnish my image and the obvious corruption taking place between Serengeti balloon safaris and Tanzania in civil aviation authority is well and truly etched in my mind. I am determined that regardless of what ever consequences lie ahead, nobody is going to intimidate me into going quietly, to do so, would be comparable to giving in to would-be hijackers, enough is enough.

I decide to send a short letter to Mr Pascoe to enquire of his willingness to enter into constructive dialogue. Within a short time, I received a reply that was as insulting as it was dismissive: “I think we have all moved on" Excuse me, not so fast, Mr Pascoe! Whilst not entirely surprised at his abysmal attitude, I find this type of behaviour grossly out of place for someone involved in the aviation industry. It is my understanding that all airline passengers, and yes, SBS is an airline, deserve far better than this.

For two weeks, I sit and ponder as to my next move. I'm determined not to let go of this. I need to clear my name of any wrongdoing in the Serengeti. My intentions were always highly professional and in the best interest of passenger and pilot safety. I decided to try once more, and I got a similar response.  His response contains an accusation that I am attempting to blackmail him in some shape or form, which is found to be a complete dribble.  He concluded with the words, “in short, Nigel put up or shut up.”  

Well, now that's quite an outburst; it certainly appears that his blood pressure was on the increase; however, given the circumstances, I certainly didn’t require any time to ponder as to which of the two options  I would be going for.

He just does not get it, does he? He fails to recognise that he is now dealing with someone who is going to remain professional to the end,  whilst at the same time, he takes on the appearance of someone way above the law. He has failed to comprehend that by remaining so insultingly dismissive, he has opened a Pandora's box,  one of such magnitude it will not only lead to highlighting deficiencies within their organisation but also in many aviation industry sectors.  Furthermore, their misplaced efforts to silence me shall ultimately have the complete reverse effect.

BUILD  NOTE  

Page  onward from this point are undergoing build

Mark & Jannys department.

Two independent expert witness reports

highlight Serengeti balloons dangerously under fueled