Last Thursday, soldiers billed to fly to Sierra Leone on peacekeeping mission held Ghanair and passengers booked to travel to New York to ransom at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

The whole scenario began with paid-up passengers booked to leave for New York on the morning of Wednesday. The passengers got to the airport, only to be told that the aircraft had developed a technical fault. The flight was then rescheduled to depart for New York on Thursday morning and the passengers were accordingly provided with hotel accommodation at cost to the airline.

A source close to Ghana Airways told The Accra Mail that soldiers were billed to travel to Freetown on Thursday for peacekeeping duties in Sierra Leone. Knowing that it takes a shorter time to fly to Freetown, the soldiers demanded that they be flown to Freetown before the aircraft could return to pick the New York-bound passengers. The soldiers threatened that if they were not ferried to their destination, they would not allow the plane to take off for New York. According to the source, the airline personnel panicked and decided to ferry the soldiers and appealed to the New York passengers to report at the airport to depart at 8 o’clock in the evening.

When The Accra Mail spoke to the Public Relations Manager of Ghana Airways, Mr. Bannerman-Bruce, he said management thought better of it and asked the soldiers to hold their peace until Friday morning as they felt they could not unduly inconvenience the New York passengers.

Some aggrieved passengers who spoke to The Accra Mail were of the view that the airline is a commercial venture that is clearly not an extension of the military. They were happy that the issue of the passengers superceded that of the soldiers who were finally airlifted to Freetown on Friday morning. According to another source at Ghanair, the soldiers were visibly angry, but "there was nothing that could be done."