Warthogs v plane – who ya got?

The slow and steady trickle of Wikileaked US embassy cables continue to make like interesting. Remember the story of the warthogs on the runway?

We didn’t get much detail then, save for Peter Chikumba saying there was a short delay because a plane hit a warthog. There’s more.

3. Warthogs Delay Ambassador’s Arrival… This week we are thrilled to welcome Ambassador Charles A. Ray to Post. He arrived on November 4 after his November 3 arrival was delayed because of a bizarre accident hours earlier. On takeoff to Bulawayo on the afternoon of November 3, an Air Zimbabwe flight struck a group of about five warthogs and veered off the runway, destroying some of the runway lights. Passengers on the Air Zim flight were stuck in the plane for about two hours; security authorities forced passengers to surrender any photographic evidence of the crash before they were allowed to leave. All night flights on November 3, including Ambassador Ray’s South African Airways flight from Johannesburg, were cancelled. The government did not comment on the warthogs’ fate.

Of course, these cables are just hearsay, but it’s enlightening to imagine security personell making evidence sweeps; that seems entirely plausible.

There’s more than 2,900 more Embassy Harare cables to go.

Let’s see what else comes up.