Rebel gunmen in Ugandan skies

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pilot Firoz Khimji witnessed his country's wars from above. Then conflict came for him.

For most of his life, Uganda had been unstable, but he'd been able to train as a commercial pilot despite the violence. When qualified, Firoz took a job with Ugandan Airlines. This was the 1980s, and he had to routinely fly between territories controlled by different armed groups. War was ever-present, but Firoz would always emerge unscathed, until a routine flight went badly wrong.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Eric Mugaju and Harry Graham Editor: Munazza Khan

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.1	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life. So one day I'll be
0:23.5	helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature, and the next looking at how
0:30.0	a podcast connects with its audience. And maybe that's you. So if you like this podcast,
0:35.4	check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:42.7	Exactly 10 or 5 in the morning on that Sunday we took off.
0:49.5	This was a 44-seater Fokker friendship, a propeller plane, two engines, a Dutch plane.
0:52.2	We took off as normal.
0:57.4	Halfway along the flight or thereabouts,
1:00.0	we start hearing a commotion from the back,
1:02.2	like a banging noise.
1:08.3	And eventually we heard someone like stumbling into the flight deck.
1:10.0	So we turned around to look,
1:11.0	and as we turn around,
1:14.1	I saw this man standing there,
1:17.0	he pulled out a pistol, cocked it,
1:19.1	and pointed it at my head,
1:22.0	and say it simply in these exact words,
1:23.8	this is a hijack.
1:29.4	At some point he said, he mentioned me by name.
	...

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