On call....

The view of out the side cockpit window of the King Air was of absolute blackness below, a spectacular field of stars above, and in between a vague silhouette of the wing and engine nacelle with a smudge of white hot exhaust blurring out of the inboard exhaust port. I was struck by the absolute blackness, the total absence of light in the Kalahari below. It was around 8pm and we were about half way between Gabs and Maun. I hadn't expected to get called out so late. My typical work day in Botswana has me going out to the airport around 9am or so. They don't want us their much earlier than that because as pilots we are limited to a 14 hour duty day whether we fly or not. So, if we get there too early and then a late call comes in for a Mercy Flight we might run out of duty time (or "turn into a pumpkin"). Yesterday morning I got to the hangar right around 9am and I spent most of the morning puttering on the motorcycle (having trouble getting the blinkers to work reliably) and then ate lunch. After lunch, I left briefly to look at furniture with Alysa and on returning spent some surfing the internet. At around 4pm, everyone was packing up for the day so I fired up the bike and headed home (blinkers working at least for the moment). I got home around 4:20 or so and I helped Alysa do the dishes. We we just discussing what to do for supper when the phone rang. It was Mark, the Director of Operations and we had an urgent call from Maun. I grabbed my bag and some snacks to bring along in lieu of supper and was heading out the door when my phone rang again. This time it was Brian, the first officer and he wanted to remind me to bring an overnight bag just in case we couldn't get home that night. I rushed back into the house and threw some clothes and a toothbrush into a bag just as Brian roared up in front of the house (he lives right down the road here in Phakalane). I hopped in and off we went. On the way in I called Briefing (the Botswanan equivalent of FSS) and filed flight plans from Gabs to Maun, Maun to Francistown, and Francistown back to Gabs. When I got to the Francistown to Gabs leg the briefer immediately questioned whether we had made arrangements to keep the tower open as we would be back after the field closes for the night. I told him that I wasn't sure what the plan was for our last leg but I wanted the flight plan on file anyway. When we arrived at the airport Brian headed out to the airplane to preflight while I got the paperwork together. About the time that we were ready the paramedics showed up and climbed aboard and we were off. When we were about 90 miles south, the lights of Maun appeared on the horizon and as we came up on town, we started looking for the airport. I had never been to Maun after dark so I wasn't much use and for whatever reason they don't put beacons on their airports here, even if they have lit runways. Anyone who has flown at night into a city airport knows that even if you know where the airport is it is devilishly hard to see the runway unless you are more or less lined up with it, so I had to have Brian (who knew where the field was) talk me onto a base before I finally spotted the field. The ambulance was waiting for us on the ramp at Maun and before the props had even stopped spinning began backing up the the airplane. A nurse got out of the ambulance holding a blanket and was followed by a young African woman in a hospital gown. It took me a moment to realize that the young woman was not the patient but the real patient was the smallest baby I have ever seen, wrapped in the blanket carried by the nurse. Immediately the paramedics but an oxygen mask on the baby who was very premature and suffering from respiratory distress. While they got settled, I got on the phone with Mark. We were not going to make it back to Gabs before the airport closed so he informed me that he had arranged a hotel for the four of us in Francistown. As soon as mom and baby were settled into the back we spun the engines and were off to Francistown. Upon arrival in Francistown, an ambulance met us and while they got mom and baby settled, Brian and I secured the airplane. Then we all piled into the ambulance and took off, lights and sirens to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, Brian and I stayed in the ambulance while the driver and the paramedics brought mom and baby inside. And then we waited. And waited. About 45 minutes later the paramedics and driver returned and when I inquired as to the delay the paramedic informed me casually that just after getting into the hospital the baby had stopped breathing but they had managed to resuscitate and stabilize her. When I asked if she would make it, the paramedic shrugged and said that if she made it through the night she would stand a good chance. I doubt I will ever know if she ultimately lived or died but what is certain is that without our late night airplane ride she would have died in Maun. It feels good to be a part of that.