Hello. I am here to tell the story of 30 passengers who traveled from Johannesburg to London from 28 February to 01 March 2004. That is just the inbound flight date.

The flight scheduled for Saturday 28th at 6 am. Delayed until 10 am. That was actually not that bad, considering our previous arrival in South Africa was delayed by 5 hours.

We arrive in Libreville and asked to wait at the airport for our connection flight to Brussels. This was an extra stop that nobody knew of. At this point we were all building a nice friendship, taking pictures and playing ball games, though we did not have any food or water. The tiny refreshment kiosk would only accept dollars or euros. We all had pounds, rands, or credit cards, obviously. There was a change machine, but no pounds accepted there either. One drink per person was finally given. A local lady kindly gave some cash to this passengers with a 18 month baby to feed. Hours, I mean many hours later, we were informed that our flight had been canceled since there was no fuel and accommodation was arranged at the local Intercontinental Hotel. We all squeezed in a van to get there. I felt particularly sorry for the mothers and theirs small kids, that had to go through the hassle. The British and the South African embassies were called and they kindly helped us get food. The airline did not agreed on serving any meal or drinks at first. After a unplanned day on the equator with no money, or change of clothes, we were still conformed with the situation, hoping for a flight with Air France to get us back to civilization. But another Air Gabon flight was reserved for us to get us to Paris at 23.00 that Sunday.

At the airport we had to go ourselves to the runway and collect our luggage to be re checked in. An expected disaster there again. Some of the bags had been open, despite the locks. Clothes, personal items, souvenirs, gifts, dive equipment, basically expensive goods disappeared from the bags. Some bags actually vanished completely. No explanation or apology was given by the staff. We all headed to the check in desk for a procedure that took hours to get done. As bags go around on the conveyor belt, one of the passengers notice an item had been put aside. The member of staff immediately puts it back, as he was caught out. We are asked to go outside the airport to make sure our luggage had been properly put away. At that international airport, where security simply does not exist, we went over the check-in desk, through to the back of the building where the containers were waiting for the bags, still sitting on the ground under rain and suspicious people who were supposed to look after them.

The episode was followed by another endless wait at the lounge. No air-conditioning or drinks were provided again. We all had to put the rest of our money together and try to get something out of the shop, that at last had someone to attend after 2 hours.

At 4 am we finally board. There was an atmosphere of anger and disbelief. All we could say about it had been said. We had complaint, we had cried, we had starved and we had lost respect for those people who laughed at our pain.

On the plane we were served a rather disgusting meal with some sort of hard meat and vegetables. One of the passengers had to constantly remind the rude air hostess to bring a drink. But shouting at her would end up in more trouble as we found out later. The same member of the crew only show arrogance and total unprofessionally ignored and refused to help the mother of the baby asking her to pass a jacket over.

Arriving in Paris we have more news. We had missed our flight to London and another one had been booked, but leaving only at 3 pm on that Monday, when most of us were expected to be at work. This flight was to Heathrow, when our bought ticket with Air Gabon, was supposed to take us to Gatwick. Some of the passengers preferred to book themselves on a Eurostar train, than wait for a flight that would take them to the other side of town. As we land and walk through the arrivals gate, family and friends look for their relatives, who had been missing for 62 hours.

I would like to thank the British and South African Embassies for their support. And we hope this comes to you with a warning. Most of all we wish this report gets to the right legal authorities to take this case further. Remember the name. Air Gabon.

Thank you.