Watch out with this guys in Congo DRC.

[Saabflyer]

Hello Guys.

I want to shear with you a bad experience I had in Africa.
They were operating a Saab 340A based in Lubumbashi, DRC and hired me as Captain.

At first, to convince me to go there, they painted me a nice picture; fully furnished house, with swimming pool, air conditioning, internet, cooker, etc. When I arrived there the picture was completely different, it was a dark hole (let's call it appartment...) in a terrible area of Lubumbashi, with most of the days without electricity and water.

Regarding the operation, as with most african operators, from the begining, they were pushing me to fly with overloads and with many items under the MEL (Minimum Equipment List).

They were also operating a pair of LET 410, this is a Czech rugged airplane prepared to land in non-prepared strips and with STOL capability. They were operated by a bunch of guys coming from eastern countries. The "russians crews", as we use to call them, were friendly, nice guys, but used to a completely different culture of work. e.g. no-checklist, no weight limits, etc. Of course in the company started pushing me to fly the same way than the russians and pretending to go to the same places virtually with no runway were they landed a LET.

Anyway, as the atmosphere of work was not bad, and the roster was good (2 months ON 1 Month OFF), I stayed with them until they started delaying my payments. They owe me today two months salary.

So, Guys, be careful with the contracts outside there, once they owe you money there's nothing you can do, especially in those corrupt countries like Congo, were you can buy everything with money.

Giving us a hand this way we are going to enclose this bad guys and avoid they cheat more colleagues.

Thanks.