Mugabe commandeers Air Zim plane to Rome

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By Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe was last night branded "heartless" after he commandeered a London-bound Air Zimbabwe plane to the Italian capital Rome, sparking a four-hour wait for hundreds of passengers after the plane ran out fuel.

Air Zimbabwe has been forced to cancel several domestic, regional and international flights due to a crippling fuel shortage and the company's terrible track record of failing to pay for refueling and landing fees at airports around the world.

Mugabe and his entourage flew into a political storm in Rome Saturday where he was invited by the United Nations. The United States said it was "amazed" by the UN agencies' decision to invite the 81-year-old leader who is banned from travel throughout the European Union, although he can attend UN events.

Furious passengers told New Zimbabwe.com how Mugabe and his group forced a deviation in the plane's route, a decision which led to a four-hour grounding of the plane after Air Zimbabwe failed to pay soon after a refueling had been done.

"It seems Air Zimbabwe were afraid to tell Mugabe that the fuel would not complete the journey," said a passenger on the plane. "Frankly, I was pissed off that our journey was altered to suite Mugabe who dumped us when he got to his destination."

Another passenger confirmed seeing refueling trucks approaching the plane. He described dramatic scenes of seeing the plane's captain angrily remonstrating with one of the men who did the refueling.

"For long periods, we were just being told there was a problem. The nature of the problem was not revealed to us," said the passenger who cannot be named.

"Many people thought Mugabe had caused the problem, if not politically, at least by having diverted the plane and the fuel question was never far from people's lips. Watching the captain arguing with the airport guy, we were pretty much convinced at that point that Air Zimbabwe had not paid for refueling.

"I got the sense that the plane's captain was just a pawn in a grand game. It was heartless for Mugabe and the Air Zimbabwe people to expose him the way they did."

It was not the first time an Air Zimbabwe flight had been grounded after Air Zimbabwe failed to settle its bill. Last month, we exclusively revealed how flights to Harare from London were temporarily suspended after a plane was grounded by airport authorities over non-payment of landing fees.

Aviation experts have expressed fears that the severe foreign currency shortages in Zimbabwe have forced Air Zimbabwe to "cut corners" after failing to buy spares and properly service their planes thereby threatening passenger safety.

The airliner has also come under fire for running unproductive routes tailored to reflect Mugabe's 'Look East' policy. Early last month, the airliner embarrassingly admitted flying only three passengers on its Bangkok-Dubai route.

The Air Zimbabwe spokesman was unavailable to comment last night.
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