MAF International Asia Pacific Papua New Guinea

Snippets from the Caravan Cockpit Mandy Glass. Stories and photos by Martin Koehler and Michael Vogel.

The Cessna 208 Caravan is the latest addition to the fleet operated by MAF Papua New Guinea. P2-MAG, donated by the UK, Switzerland, Netherlands and Norway, arrived in Papua New Guinea in October 2012, and since then it has made about 1500 flights here. P2-MAF came in 2009 and after an extended period of refurbishment in 2013 was the first Cessna Caravan of our fleet to get the new MAF paint scheme. Since then it has made more than 3000 flights in PNG.

P2-MAG on its arrival in Mt Hagen at October 2012

Swiss pilot Michael Vogel and German pilot Martin Koehler are currently in the captain‘s seat of these two planes to make a difference in the lives of many people and villages across the country by transporting pastors, teachers, bible school students, doctors, health workers and sick people. On other occasions the plane is fully loaded with building materials, educational and medical supplies for villages which are off the beaten track and lack the service.

Flying for Life

Martin doing a medevac of a women facing birth difficulties

Michael checking the patient

As with every other aircraft in our fleet that does medical evacuations, many of the Caravans' medevacs carry mothers with birth difficulties like the one pictured on the left, when Martin flew a pregnant lady from Sisamin to Oksapim. But not every flight has a happy end. Occasionally a lack of communication or inaccurate awareness of a serious illness by trained medical staff, or our pilots and operations coordinators, can prevent a medevac happening in time, and for some patients the help comes too late. When pilot Michael Vogel stayed at Telefomin for a work/holiday time with his family they had a flight to Busilmin and walked into a situation where a man was gasping for air and seemed to be very sick. “The people said ‘He is dead already,‘ but when I checked him he was still breathing and I could feel a pulse. With MAF MED funds we wanted to fly the man to Tabubil where he could get the best medical attention.“

In preparation to return to Busilmin with the man‘s body

Michael continues: “Right from the beginning I knew the chances of him surviving were slim, but to show the people that we care about them we took him anyway. He died on the flight

The Cessna 208 Caravan carries up to 13 passengers or 1,150kg of supplies and cruises at a speed of 170 mph. This single engine turbo-prop aircraft is fitted with sturdy landing gear, able to take abuse from the rough airstrips on which it lands. The larger tyres, mud flaps, rubber scraper for the nose tyre, and slightly longer nose gear help prevent mud and rocks being thrown into the propeller on landing. The simple design and reliable Pratt and Whitney turbine engine combine to keep maintenance time and costs to a minimum. Fully equipped for instrument flight, with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), weather radar and stormscope, the Caravan can still operate safely in the challenging conditions of storms and the rainy season. The large cabin enables the transportation of bulky items such as timber, prefabricated doors, corrugated iron sheets, fuel drums, and even motorbikes. The cargo pod underneath the plane takes additional freight and separates certain types of freight from passengers.

to the hospital. Via Radio I asked for an ambulance to be ready. The doctor just confirmed his death and took the body to the morgue overnight. The weather turned bad and I had to spend the night in Tabubil as well. The man's brother came along on the flight and obviously he was devastated.“ “We decided to fly him and the body back to Busilmin next day for no charge. They couldn't afford a coffin. At least the Tabubil hospital gave us a body bag for transportation. It doesn't always end well for everybody.“ “According to the medical personnel, they think he died of TB. The man's brother was convinced it was sorcery. I Michael the death of the man to the villagers tried to convince the community that the man was sick. The health worker there tried to help me by explaining that nobody else needs to be accused of witchcraft because that's not the cause of his death. Hopefully they understood.“ Explaining deaths like this and connecting them to sorcery and witchcraft shows another challenge of mission work in the remote valleys of Papua New Guinea. It illustrates the great need for education and well trained medical staff in those areas. The German surgeon Dr Guenter Kittel and the Australian physician Dr David Mills, both working in hospitals in PNG try their very best to train local health workers as well as performing lots of operations and consultations at their hospitals.

Dr Guenter Kittel and his team

Recently Martin flew Dr Guenter Kittel, his wife Bindu, son Adi as well as two other volunteers. They were on a medical outreach at Nakina. Dr Guenter Kittel, who led the team, is a German surgeon working at the Lutheran Mission Hospital at Etep, on the north coast of PNG. The flight from Madang to Nakina took 30 minutes. Without the service of MAF it would have taken them at least three days on foot and canoe to reach Nakina, which is located in the Finisterre Mountains, at an altitude of 1800m. Dr Kittel and his team remained at Nakina for several days to help out at the local bush clinic, which is fairly poorly equipped. He and his team did several small operations while he was there.

Flying for Life

Dr David Mills, chief physician at Kompiam District Hospital and Medical Superintendent of the Enga Baptist Health Services, tries to upgrade the surrounding aid posts (bush hospitals) and equip them with local doctors. On board one of the many flights during the last few months that Martin did, were Dr David Mills together with his family and Chris Yangoe, the new Health Worker, as well as all the cargo which included a vaccine fridge, solar panels, radio equipment and the medical supplies. They left from Kompiam to install the equipment and supplies to Pyarulama where they were building a new aid post. During the 1:45 hours spent on the ground Martin helped to install the solar panels on the aid post roof while Dr David Mills installed the new fridge and the new solar panels for the radio, a very necessary piece of equipment to link the Pyarulama community with the outside world and their Kompiam Hospital. Even though the aid post is just a shack made out of bush materials, it now stands as a beacon of life saving possibilities.

Dr David Mills and equipment for the local aid post at Pyarulama

Carrying drugs and the fridge from the airplane to the aid post

Dr David Mills installing solar panels on the aid post roof

By flying medical teams, health workers, medical supplies and building materials into remote communities across PNG MAF demonstrates the love and compassion of Jesus Christ for these people to help overcome their traditional misconceptions and isolation.