Hewa Bora
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Hewa Bora. Boeing MD-82. Flight from Kinshasa to Kisangani.

Fly well!

Airport airport - strife, and how good it is when arriving at your next destination, you feel at home, because behind the heavy flight hours. 
No matter how difficult life is in Africa, but once arriving in the city of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, you feel really "white man."

Kisangani

Kisangani
Hewa Bora Airlines, the local Congolese carrier, will take you two hours from the capital, Kinshasa, to this small town located exactly at zero degrees, right on the equator. Your flight will take no more than two hours, if you do not have to wait at the airport for additional time for loading luggage of some of the local entrepreneurs. In this case, the flight may be delayed, and no one will take into account the indignation of disgruntled passengers! The plane will take off only when the cargo has been fully loaded. It seems that the doors have slammed shut, and the plane is taxiing onto the runway ...

Sama Airlines «Hewa Bora» blacklisted airlines of the European Union, precisely for the reason, not compliance with the rules for the transport of passengers and goods. Each flight of the airline is performed with a large overload, which, of course, is not permissible, in terms of compliance with aviation security. 

the pilots of the Congo

The flight was assigned to an American aircraft manufactured by Boeing Corporation, a modification of the MD-82. It seems to be not bad, but the cabin itself leads passengers into a rage. Here the overload is noticeable even on the arrangement of seats in the plane. The gap between them is so narrow that I wondered how lush passengers were placed in them. 

The flight itself, from the city of Kinshasa to Kisangani, is considered domestic, and the security procedures should be simplified as much as possible. So, having arrived at their destination, all the passengers were in a hurry to escape from this cage as soon as possible, and passing through the visual control line, they simply went further, into the airport premises, having finished their flight. Apparently, I stood out too much from the crowd, as the security officer invited me to approach him. After checking my documents and finding out who I was, where I came from and for what purpose, he said that I did not have enough visa to the city of Kisangani. I explained that there are no two visas in one country, but the official insisted on his own.

Kisangani Airport, waiting room.

Without thinking too long, he offered to pay me $ 20 for a visa to the city of Kisangani. What was left for me to do? Of course, agree to his proposal.
Traveling around the countries of Central Africa, you need to be prepared for such situations, and not be overshadowed, it is just that life is built here.

Martynenko Igor G. - UN official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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