British colony risks isolation after RAF refuses flights

A tiny British colony risks being cut off as a row with a nearby Royal Air Force (RAF) base threatens to ground flights.

Weekly flights to St Helena, off the coast of West Africa, could be cancelled because the RAF is refusing to allow emergency backup landings on nearby Ascension Island.

The stand-off threatens to leave the colony’s 4,400 residents reachable only by sea, a journey that takes five days from the nearest port in South Africa.

The RAF base on Ascension Island, which is 700 miles from St Helena, is supposed to act as a diversionary airport for planes unable to land on the British colony in bad weather.

But an investigation by the UK air safety regulator found that the RAF had banned Airlink, the company operating the St Helena flights, from landing when the weather was bad.

After the ban, Airlink was forced to attempt landings in dangerous conditions rather than divert to Ascension Island, according to a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). 

The AAIB said it broke an agreement that said that Ascension Island could be routinely listed as an alternative destination for flights encountering bad weather.

Pilots are required to list diversionary airports in flight plans, so the stand-off may threaten the future of the St Helena service and deprive residents of vital supplies.

St Helena residents estimate that one in four flights struggle to land during bad winter weather.

Islanders said they fear the Pentagon may be behind the reluctance to admit civilians to Ascension Island, which houses joint US and UK intelligence-gathering and space-tracking facilities.

The AAIB said the Ministry of Defence should allow airlines flying to St Helena to nominate the RAF base as a diversionary airfield in line with the 2023 deal.

Procedures for such diversions should be set down in writing to avoid any further confusion about the availability of the airfield, it said.

However, Airlink said there had been no change to the situation and that it understood that it could only divert to Ascension Island in the event of an emergency.

It said St Helena was one of its most challenging destinations and that flights were always piloted by two senior captains rather than a captain and a less experienced first officer.

St Helena airport opened in 2017, before which the island was connected to the rest of the world only by a monthly sailing from Cape Town that took five days.

The service ended a year after the airport’s first flights, and the island’s only maritime connections today are provided by a cargo ferry with limited passenger capacity.

Henry Thorpe, the managing director of WA Thorpe & Sons, which has been importing goods into St Helena since 1865, said a quarter of Airlink services could not operate as planned in winter because of extreme weather.

He said: “Sometimes the wind just won’t let the plane land. It’s like an invisible hand holding it off the runway. There’s a flight radar thing, and you see them doing five figures of eight as they try to get down.”

Mr Thorpe said he was concerned about the island’s economy, whose main source of revenue was cruise-ship tourists visiting the house and grave of Napoleon, who was exiled there after Waterloo.

The Ministry of Defence said it was evaluating the AAIB findings. A spokesman added: “We are aware of the recommendations in the report and will consider them carefully.”

The spokesman for the St Helena government said it took the safety of flights “very seriously”. St Helena Airport said it was “content with the current diversion arrangements” but would work with Ascension Island to ensure they remained “effective, proportionate and aligned with operational needs”.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it appreciated the work done by the AAIB but also believed that aircraft diversion procedures were working effectively.

It said the UK retains discretion to approve or refuse access based on military requirements, security or safety concerns, or airfield capacity.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]