In 1975, the war was still raging in Angola, a country located in the Southwest of Africa, sharing borders with Zaïre, Zambia and Namibia. In these days, revolutionary movements supported by Communist Russia and Chinese Maoïst government were fighting in different context and places in the world to get their independence from their foreign masters. Angola, a Portuguese " possession" did not escape from this trend...It took Angola from 1961 to 1974 to finally be allowed to "fare its own way" . The independence was decided in November 1975.... Shortly before that, the pressing question of Portuguese population surfaced at UN... In a way similar to that of the French "Pieds-Noirs" at the independence of Algeria, the Portuguese population, born in Angola or working in Angola as expatriate became "persona non grata" and had to flee the country. From what I recall, (but this is such a long time ago and I could be wrong) I believe that Seaboard World Airlines had been chartered by the United Nations, unless it was possibly by the Portuguese National carrier T.A.P ? to participate into a huge airlift aiming at carrying Portuguese refugees from the cities of LUANDA and NOVA LISBOA back to LISBON where some of them had neve lived before...!
( A B 707 picking-up refugees in Angola. We, would fly at night...)
Seaboard World Airlines looked for human resources in its European locations "closer" to Angola than the JFK headquarter was and selection of staff to participate in the Angola Airlift started. I was 24, still a young idiot, an immature Frenchman in love with adventure, a yet unseasoned traveler, but I soon boarded an UTA DC8 in Roissy CDG airport (only opened a year before) on my way to organize our temporary operation base in Abidjan. A full day's worth of flying with stops in Marseille, Nouhadibou (Mauretania, where France operated iron mining plants) and Conakry (Guinean Republic) and I finally landed in ABIDJAN airport "Felix Houphouet Boigny". This was my first contact with Africa. Seaboard World Airlines had made arrangement for hotel accommodation and the place selected was in line with the nicest hotels in Europe or in the US. Our 3 full crews were catered at the Ivoire Intercontinental Hotel , a luxury affair located on the Cocody plateau, not far away from the Presidential palace. Because landing in Angola during the day could pose security threats, we had prepared a daily ops plan calling for the following legs: Leaving Abidjan around 2100 arriving Luanda around 2330 Departing Luanda around 0200 Arriving Abidjan around 0430. In Abidjan, a fresh crew would wait for us at the airport and relief the inbound crew so that the passengers ( should we say the refugees) could continue their trip all the way to Lisbon, where the airplane would turnaround and return to Abidjan, empty of all the passengers. Departing ABIDJAN around 0600 Arriving LISBON around 1100 Departing LISBON around 1200 Arriving ABIDJAN around 1700 All of this provided that -weather allowed -crew was in good shape -Airplane was not " sick" -Authorities in LUANDA were cooperative... -and above all catering (*)including "smokes","anti-freeze" and exotic fruit would be fully available when we would return to Abidjan on the way back from LUANDA (*) I had a special deal with the commissary unit of Air Afrique at the airport to "organize" the best possible goodies and keep all of our crew members happy....They worked their ass off and deserved the best ..... Anyone having worked in this industry know what I am referring to .... In Luanda, the airport was under capacity to handle so many people in so little time. The only thing these refugees wanted was to leave the country as quickly as possible. I will not talk about the airport toilets, uncleaned for weeks and still used by over 3000 people a day.... Being in charge of the operation, I had the responsibility of preparing the Weight and Balance document which would allow the flight crew to properly set the airplane trim for take off, but there were no proper weighing facilities and all of the passenger luggage and goods were simply " hand weighed" using an estimation based on what we felt was the weight of each piece of luggage lifted by our hand. On the down leg from Abidjan to Luanda, the cabin crew and I would sleep, write postcards,read,talk, while the flight crew was making us cross the African skies. Our call sign going down was N 955 U...for some reason, we were using the airplane tail number as a flight number. I know there was a good reason....was it security ? was it to make it more simple ? I can't say but till this day, I remember sitting in the cockpit for the long descent toward LUANDA airport, the radio headset on my head listening to the first radio contact with LUANDA APPROACH : -LUANDA,LUANDA, November 955 uniform from ABIDJAN,we are over check point " EXITO" we should be landing at ......hour, we have information "charlie".... Luanda would then giving us our clearance to land, the runway in use, and the required special information necessary for a safe landing. All cabin lights were then turned off, the flight crew would concentrate on the approach check list: -Flaps and slots ? -Set , Light checked ! -Flight instruments and navs ? -Set and checked ! -Nav switch ? -On Nav ! -Stand-by rudder power ? -On ! ..... The landing gear was lowered, the noise in the cockpit would increase with the drag of the wheel being lowered, landing lights were turned on and soon, LUANDA runway was right there... Touchdown, reverse power on, after landing, check list was soon completed and everyone in the cockpit would breathe more easily Proceeding to the parking spot was an affair of minutes.The front passenger door would be opened, and the moist air of the tropical night would suddenly engulf the entire cabin... We were in LUANDA.
(Cuban soldiers in front of Luanda International airport, 42 Years ago.....)
© Sylvain Ubersfeld for Commercial Air Transport ___________________________________________________ You may want to have a look at a telegraphic exchange between US authorities and local US reps in ANGOLA during the airlift I am referring to. We were a part of the additional " capacity" to which this telegram is making reference . https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1975LUANDA01618_b.html