Daredevil pilot's ordeal after South Sudan crash

Suffering from malaria and fearing he may not get spare parts for his plane which he is afraid locals will strip, are just a few issues Maurice Kirk is grappling with after ending up in war-torn South Sudan instead of Kenya where he was headed.

Veteran British pilot Maurice Kirk, 71, was taking part in a rally flying vintage planes across Africa when he accidentally veered off course away from his destination at a town in Kenya nearly two weShow more

Juba // Veteran British pilot Maurice Kirk has had his share of mishaps flying vintage planes around the world, but even his maverick mettle was tested after crashing in war-torn South Sudan.

Mr Kirk, 71, was taking part in a rally flying vintage planes across Africa when he accidentally veered off course nearly two weeks ago, ending up in South Sudan instead of a town in Kenya just across the border.

It was the second time he went missing during the rally – whose exasperated organisers have disqualified him for his antics: flying with an unfit aircraft and broken compass, and forgetting all his maps in a Khartoum hotel.

Stricken with malaria in the South Sudanese capital Juba, Mr Kirk told of how he crash-landed in Kapoeta – the site of violent clashes in July between warring parties in the country – shortly after all the pilots were detained in Ethiopia for two days.

“I was headed for Lokichogio [Kenya] and I simply ran out of daylight. I think I was suffering from malaria then and I had difficulties as a pilot-in-command. And I’m afraid I scratched her a little bit,” he said.

His rough landing left him with a puncture, broken propeller and other damage to his 1943 Piper Cub.

Mr Kirk said he was “generally attacked” by locals when they stumbled upon him, slapping him around and herding him into the local police station.

“They put me into a cubbyhole with no water, no bucket. And they left the lights on and the flies were everywhere,” he said.

“They kept me there for four or five days ... And every time the embassy rang, they would stand to attention with the phone and comb their hair,” he said.

Mr Kirk has been recounting his adventures on his Facebook page, issuing desperate pleas to save his plane and get spare parts shipped to him, while detailing his severe nausea and headaches before he was transported to Juba and diagnosed with malaria.

“Malaria frightened me a lot,” said the pilot who was injured in 2005 when he crash-landed in Japan on a solo bid to fly around the world in a vintage plane. He also crashed in the Caribbean in 2008.

As he struggles to get a visa to legalise his presence in South Sudan, his biggest fear is that his plane will be stripped by locals.

“I fear that because its upended, it’s an ideal slide for the local children. It’s very very old, it’s older than me.”

* Agence France-Presse