The uninformed opinions about the chopper crash near Obuasi persist.
It is our prayer that the bereaved families are far away from their radios at this time of the healing process they are undergoing. Some of the submissions are so irritating. We are unable to dismiss the thought that those contributing to the discussions think they know everything when indeed they are shallow in their submissions.
There is no doubt about the fact that some subjects require a certain level of expertise before people can contribute to discussions on them.
Air accident and investigation issues are some of such specialised fields, not forgetting medicine and many others.
A discussant during one of the many conversations in the aftermath of the accident sought to question the qualification of the posthumously promoted Wing Commander Peter Baafemi Anala to fly VIPs.
The man making the assumption did not know anything about the pilot and how he came to be flying VIPs.
One of the qualifications of pilots is their log hours of flying and by extension the number of years they have been flying.
Wing Commander Anala was said to have clocked about fifteen years of flying, several hours of doing so and specially chosen to fly VIPs.
His aviation safety and accident investigation courses in the US have earned him a recognition at the facility he underwent the training. He occasionally goes there to lecture on aircraft accident investigation.
It would not be fair to downgrade such a personality through badmouthing because he was involved in a fatal accident.
This leader is two-pronged.
Firstly, it is about the uninformed discussions about the ill-fated flight and how similar conversations thwarted efforts to purchase a presidential aircraft for the country.
The President has embarked upon an official trip to Singapore and Japan. Questions are being posed as to which aircraft he used for the trip; commercial or private?
The national security implications of which aircraft the Commander-in-Chief is using is important for the nation. Â That is why at any given time the country must have an airworthy aircraft to be used by the President when the need arises.
We recall how when this subject emerged during the past regime, Foreign Affairs Minister Okudzeto Ablakwa led the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to thwart the effort.
He and the party who had transformed into aviation experts overnight claimed there was nothing wrong with the aircraft. When novices assume the authority to certify the airworthiness of aircraft, as they did, we can only cross our fingers and watch. We did so and what happened to the said presidential aircraft—grounded in France?
At the time the then government demanded an order for a replacement for the unworthy aircraft, the then President had only a limited time to be in office, such orders taking some two years before delivery.
To think therefore that the aircraft was going to inure to the interest of President Akufo-Addo was a display of naivety.
The national interest should supersede all others when issues come up for discussions.
Let them stand up to be counted who stood in the way of an order for a replacement for the presidential aircraft? Asking them to bow their heads in shame is appropriate because but for their action, the President would have travelled in a presidential jet primed for his position as Commander-in-Chief.