Ghanair's Headaches Over "Missing" Engines

More bizarre stories continue to pop up at the corridors of the troubled national airline, Ghanair, as the nation still ponders over its tattered state.

Days after the Chronicle story about the whereabouts of two DC9 engines belonging to Ghanair, it has emerged that three additional DC 9 engines that were airlifted from Accra between 1999 to 2000, ostensibly for servicing, are also nowhere to be found.

As officials of the troubled airline continued to give conflicting accounts as to the where- abouts of the engines, Chronicle sources at the airline indicated that almost all the five engines had been sold out.

Documents stumbled upon by the Chronicle indicate that Ghanair even spent $26,000 (about ?300million) on a team of technicians dispatched from London to Ethiopia to inspect the two engines, on behalf of A.J. Walters Aviation.

When Chronicle reached Mr. Joe Brown, Deputy Director in charge of Engineering, who was assigned by the then Chief Executive Officer of Ghanair, Mr. Emmanuel Quartey, Jnr., to deal with the engines, he refused to comment. "Big man, you have already written what you want to write, what is your problem again?"

Brown, who is now a key figure in the airline's Management Task Force, said and hung up his phone.

Despite persistent denials and conflicting accounts as to the whereabouts of these DC9 engines by some officials of Ghanair and A.J Walters Aviation, the company alleged to have purchased the engines, Chronicle can report that a few days after the first two engines arrived in Ethiopia for the so-called 'servicing,' officials A.J. Walters Aviation, reputable in aviation issues, sent technicians to Ethiopia to inspect the engines.

The crux of the issue is that when the engines arrived in Ethiopia, A.J. Walters engaged engineers for technical assistance from London to assess the engines and at the end of that exercise a bill of $18,000 was presented to Ghanair.

As if that was not enough, Walters again engaged AERO-Propulsion Management Service Ltd on October 26, 2000, for technical assistance and at the end of this exercise Ghanair again parted with $7,335, bringing the total bill to about $26,000.

A glance at the breakdown of the bill reads, 'Charges for Technical Assistance in review of JT8D engine work packages at Ethiopian Airways; UK visit to Ethiopia for AJ Walters, Yellow fever vaccination ?33 pounds, Return airline ticket from UK to Ethiopia ?1896.50; UK visit to Ethiopia for A.J. Walters visa application and postage ?56.35 pounds, Hotel at LHR-one night ?57.75; three nights at a Hotel in Addis Baba ?291.34 and other expenses brought the total figure to ?2379.73."

The bill, which was signed by Mr. John H Davies MD of AERO- Propulsion Management Services Ltd, was first submitted to A.J. Walters, who later passed the bill to Ghanair.

Like the two previous engines airlifted on February 12, 1999, a DC9 engine with number P688118B was airlifted from Accra and to High Flyer, an aviation company, in London, with Ghana Airways Bill (AWB) number 237-04878602.

This engine weight is 2446, while the stand on which the engine was placed before airlifting it from the airport cost Ghanair $12,000.

Again, on April 20, 2000 another engine with engine number 696683B was dispatched to ATITECH in Rome with AWB number 237-0500-3854.

Management of Ghanair later sent a third engine to Alitalia in Italy under the same excuse that they were going to service these engines, but they are yet to take delivery of the said engines.

While one account maintained that the engines had been sold, officials of the Ghanair who were involved in the deals and are still at the helm of affairs are claiming that they did not sell the engines but no one know when the said engines would arrive.

Interestingly, after the first story, AJ Walters Aviation wrote to Chronicle to deny that they had purchased the two engines that were sent to Ethiopia.

"Both engines were routed to Addis Ababa for repair. As they were in unserviceable condition, their value was no more than $100,000.000," AJ Walters stated.

Contrarily, a document signed by John Davies of AERO-Propulsion Management Services Ltd to A.J. Walters for technical assistance indicated that the engines had been sold to A.J. Walter Aviation.

Almost all the engines had one million dollar price tag on it when it was being airlifted from Accra.