Diary of Events for travel from London Gatwick via Libreville to Johannesburg.

Scheduled itinerary (as recorded on flight tickets sold by Global Travel)

Jan. 10: Air Gabon flight SGN 617 to Libreville dep. London Gatwick: 19:45

Jan. 11: Air Gabon flight SGN 166 to Johannesburg dep. Libreville: 07:40

Mar. 27: Air Gabon flight SGN 111 to Libreville dep. Johannesburg: 05:45

Air Gabon flight SGN 618 to London Gatwick dep. Libreville: 12:15

(all times LOCAL)

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1. 9th January

Travel agent (Global travel) notify delay of SGN 617 to 20:10 on 10th Jan.

2. 10th January

Checked in at LGW at 16:30 (Air Gabon desk manned by Aviance)

Informed of delay to 23:30 due to scheduled maintenance of aircraft

Refreshment vouchers offered

Assured by Air Gabon rep. that onward connecting flight (SGN 166) would wait for incoming passengers from LGW, leaving 1 hour for changeover in Libreville

At 22.30 enquired at Aviance desk re progress. No effort was made to assist or contact Air Gabon staff

3. 11th January

At 00:30 passengers informed of further flight delay until 03:00

No explanation given, no further refreshment or accommodation offered

AG representative said Air Gabon does this all the time there are serious delays. Libreville office avoids taking calls from London about such delays so they don't get authority to book delayed passengers into a hotel.

At 03:00, passengers informed of FURTHER flight delay until 06:00 due to diversion of aircraft to Brussels at short notice due to strong cross winds at Gatwick.

Refreshment vouchers offered.

At 08:45 flight boarded. Aircraft filthy (rubbish on and under seats, blankets on floor, toilets unemptied and smelling)

Aircraft kept on stand for 2 hours, with passengers boarded. No explanation given, no water offered.

During this period, 2 male stewards physically attacked deportee passenger, dragging him to rear of cabin, where they kicked and punched him until English passengers broke up the attack.

Those English passengers demanded to be allowed off the flight in view of the situation, but were refused and physically intimidated by cabin staff, as were nearby passengers.

At 10:45, the aircraft took off, some 15 hours later than scheduled, and passengers having received only 2 light refreshments and very limited water over this period.

During the 7 hour flight to Libreville, service and meals offered were extremely poor, and very little fluid refreshment was available. Cabin staff claimed to have run out of water and soft drinks.

Aircraft landed at Libreville at 18:30 (11th Jan.)

Checked in for flight to Johannesburg (SGN 166).

Assured by Air Gabon staff that flight was due to leave at 22:30 (11th Jan). However flight information boards showed that the only flight to Johannesburg was GN 166 (i.e. the flight number I was scheduled to take) departing at 11:00 ON JAN. 12th.

The waiting area was extremely basic, with only wire benches, no furniture, no drinking water available or offered, no public phones, no cash machines, no access to foreign currency exchange, and no English-speaking staff. There were no facilities for nursing mothers or disabled passengers.

Persistent enquiries resulted in the news that a flight was coming in from Johannesburg and would be taking off to return at 02:00 (12th Jan). No explanation, no blankets and no accommodation was offered, and the only place to rest was on the concrete floor.

After further persistent demands, we were given a stale sandwich and a can of beer each. In our advancing state of dehydration, this was completely inadequate, as well as being wholly inappropriate for pregnant women, children, vegetarians and Muslims.

Requests for access to water, phones and medications in passengers luggage were denied in the most arrogant and derisive terms.

At 23:00 we were offered a shower to freshen up in a local hotel. Those accepting this offer were turned away on arrival at the hotel. Air Gabon representatives claimed this was because the hotel was full, but other airport staff told us it was completely empty, and that Air Gabon are regularly turned away from all local hotels because they never pay their bills. On the way to the airport, passengers saw the wreckage of an Air Gabon aircraft which had crashed the previous week, which further diminished their confidence in the airline!

4. 12th January

The flight (an Interair plane) arrived at Libreville at 00:30 but due to flying hour regulations the pilot was unable to fly further until fully rested.

Really persistent enquiries finally resulted in Air Gabon staff admitting that the flight WAS due to depart at 11:00 as had been planned all along and stated on the display screens. They also admitted that there had NEVER been a flight GN 166 on Sundays from Libreville to Joburg as ticketed by them through Global travel.

The staff continued to deny passengers access to water, food, phones or other communications with the outside world, and we were not permitted to leave the airport because of armed guards at the exits of the airport building.

Throughout this period, I emphasized to Air Gabon reps and airport staff that amongst the passengers were young children ranging from a few months to 8 years of age who were in an advanced state of dehydration, and that there were other passengers who needed access to their medicines in their checked-in baggage, which was lying on the tarmac unguarded, unprotected, and inaccessible. I drew their attention in particular to a 7 year old asthmatic boy who needed access to his inhaler and medication, but was totally ignored. (Fortunately he remained stable, but had an acute asthmatic attack occurred the consequences would have been grave.)

Access to phone was even denied to a woman whose husband was in a critical condition in a South African hospital following a road traffic accident she was unable even to contact the hospital to establish whether he had survived surgery or not. The parents in Johannesburg had been assured by Air Gabon that passengers on the Libreville flight had been placed in a comfortable 5 star hotel, we later found out.

I managed with great difficulty to send a text message to my mother requesting her to notify problems to Foreign Office.

(She and my father also contacted Air Gabon at Manchester airport (Mrs Reilly) and both were assured that passengers were being offered refreshments and accommodation in a 5 star local hotel, and were being upgraded to Business Class for their return travel with Air Gabon).

At 08:00 a few small cups of coffee were distributed, but not enough for all passengers: most got nothing. Again, requests for water and food were denied in the most arrogant and brutal fashion.

At 10:00 passengers were informed that the flight was delayed until 13:30. Since landing the aircraft had been unattended on the tarmac, in clear view of the passengers, and no attempts to load or refuel it had been made up till then.

At 10:30 we were each given a 500 ml bottle of water completely inadequate to rehydrate an adult human deprived of water for the 16 hour period we had been held for, considering that the last water on the incoming flight had been taken some 24 hours earlier.

At 10:45 we boarded the Interair flight. Takeoff was further delayed because (we were told by the flight crew) Air Gabon had not passed on luggage weight information, so Interair staff had to weigh and load the luggage (which should have been done earlier).

They also reported that Air Gabon had initially refused to give Interair any food or drinks for the flight, and had only after extreme pressure provisioned the aircraft. The food served was quite literally in an advanced state of microbial deterioration, and the supply of drinks ran out before all passengers were served the only meal provided.

On arrival in Johannesburg, there was no Air Gabon representative to assist us or explain/apologize for the shameful treatment the airline had subjected us to. No representative could be found at the airline desk or office at the airport.

5. 13th January.

I called at Air Gabon's main office in Santon-Johannesburg. I was well-received and politely treated by the Interair representative, as the Air Gabon representative was unavailable. The Interair has arranged for my transfer to a different, safer airline (probably Virgin). This awaits final confirmation.

Since arriving in Johannesburg, I have heard from my parents by E-mail that Air Gabon's UK representative informed them that passengers were offered refreshment and hotel accommodation in Libreville and that I have accepted an upgrade to Business class for my scheduled return flights. These statements are false: in particular NO offer of an upgrade has been made by, or accepted from Air Gabon.

6. Conclusions

The above diary of events is a true record of my experience with Air Gabon's service in the period 10th January 12th January 2004. I witnessed personally and directly all the events noted, and all the quoted statements from airline and airport staff (though not wholly verbatim many were in African French) are in effect and meaning true. On the basis of my experience of their service, I consider Air Gabon an unsafe airline whose staff have not the slightest concern for the safety and well-being of their passengers.

17th January, 2004.