Terror in a time of sadza

October 23, 2008 by Styles Kadzere ·
Filed under: I was just thinking

The story on NewZimbabwe.com two days ago about a woman on an Air Zimbabwe flight who almost beat up an air hostess when she felt it was sadza time had me laughing hard.

The not so funny side is that I don’t think that this woman realises that in an age such as this, her misdemeanour can be classified very easily as an act of terror and filed in the archives of history on the same pages as activities by Bin Laden and company.

What I find curious is that this woman should choose to snap while on a flight to “better things” when she had all the time beforehand to snap whilst standing in a bank queue, or whilst sitting in the dark during a power cut or whilst waiting for delayed election results.

If you missed it here is the story:

A CRAZED passenger on a London-bound Air Zimbabwe flight threatened to beat up air hostesses during a refuelling stop-over in Lilongwe after demanding to be served SADZA, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.

Malawian police were called after the woman yelled at Air Zimbabwe flight staff: “I am gonna hit you.”

The woman was led away from the plane by Malawian police together with a young man who joined her in the 30-minute carnage which had the pilot threatening to scrap the flight.

The incident, which happened on October 12, was confirmed by Air Zimbabwe on Tuesday.

A passenger who was on the flight said: “She first went to the back of the plane where the air hostesses were and told them she was hungry. The air hostesses said they could not serve food while the plane was on the runway because of regulations which say the passage-way should be kept clear. They promised to serve food as soon as the plane was back in the air.

“But she just exploded… she got up, trying to instigate everyone to rise up and demand food. She said because of Air Zimbabwe’s delays she was owed three meals and she specifically wanted to be served sadza. It was carnage.”

The co-pilot stepped in and tried to calm the crazed woman, described as in her 50s, but without success.

Our source added: “Shortly after the co-pilot returned to the cockpit, the captain announced that as long as the noise continued, we could not take off. He then asked everyone to take their seats as police were entering the plane.”

The woman, and another man who said he was her son, were led away by the police as the shouting continued.

In a parting shot, the woman yelled at air hostesses that she would hit them, our source said.

David Mwenga, Air Zimbabwe’s manager for Europe, confirmed the incident last night: “Our captain did indicate to the passengers that he was entrusted with many lives, and if ever he felt that lives were threatened, and it was unsafe to fly the plane in those circumstances, he would abort.

“Other passengers clearly understood that and went quiet, but sadly we had to leave two passengers who would not cooperate. Offloading people in middle of a journey is not an easy decision for any pilot, but this got to a level where he feared it endangered the safety of other passengers.”

Tell the world: