No insurance for Air Link crash victims....

...Dr Delle, others threaten to sue Air Force, GCAA

It has now emerged that at the time of the fatal Air Link crash of June, last year, which killed seven passengers, the flagship of the Ghana Air Force (GAF) did not have the mandatory authorisation and documentation to carry civilians.

Chronicle investigations can reveal that Air Link was operating less of both an air carrier's license and an aircraft operation certificate, without much of a protest or even a query from the regulator of the aviation industry and manager of the national airspace, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

This apparent "irregularity" in the operations of Air Link attracted queries from some aviation experts including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which complained to the GCAA on a regular basis. The Air Link plane was reportedly detained by the NCAA last year for carrying civilians even though it was not qualified to do so.

These together, alongside frequent advice from some personnel of the flight safety department of the GCAA went unheeded, till disaster struck.

Meanwhile, victims of the June 5, 2000 crash, including Dr Edmund Delle, a top official of the Convention People's Party and the Director of the Rabito Clinic, have threatened to sue the GCAA and the operators of Air Link, Ghana Air Force (GAF) over their failure to compensate them ten months after the fatal crash.

The plane, with 52 passengers on board, was on a routine flight from Tamale when it crashed at the threshold of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Accra, killing seven people and wounding several others, some seriously.