Khat flights are notorious for being grossly overloaded, and I mean GROSSLY. They know from experience how much the aircraft will lift so not infrequently it barely scrapes the fence and relies on ground effect and no giraffes once over the game reserve. I jest not. (Think that Il17 video take off in Oz). They all go out in a rush first thing to get to Somalia first for best prices so its sometimes foggy too. Any safety culture is all but non-existent.
One little glitch to an engine, or a greedier than usual boss, or a more unscrupulous than usual loader and you're in a pickle.
It used to be common to see King Air pilots at Wilson sitting at the controls being walled in by a cabin full of Khat. No way out except by the postcard size dv window...That's Khat flying. The urgency is because it has a very short useful life, it is stale after a day or so hence the rush as fresher stuff commands higher prices.
Khat won't affect the crew unless the chew the orrible stuff, which thankfully the UK has just - finally - banned this week. It's pernicious stuff - mild stimulant my eye. It makes the chewers (who have to continuously top up a vast revolting ball of green cud in their bulging cheeks) talkative in the first hour or two, argumentative after that, then frequently aggressive or even raving and finally knocked out. They lie around in heaps in the streets in the afternoon. Habitual Khat chewers are unlikely to do any work. It's movement and sale is almost certainly controlled by organised crime at best and funds terrorist organisations in places like Somalia where it provides copious amounts of money. It's suitable stuff for a place like Mog. A F27 load of khat would be worth $way way into 6 figures. Upland Kenya, Ethiopia and I think Yemen grow it where it certainly provides many farmers with a living.
Fortunes are made on it, lives and arguably whole countries wrecked by it and many lives are lost.
The Khat trucks (usually dangerously unroadworthy) stage their own version of the Paris Dakar daily to rural regions - in a country that cannot feed itself or organise the most basic of government - fights occur in the Khat markets which are feral places at best, monumental crashes are routine. Its a business worth staggering amounts of money. In the poorest paces in the world.
There you are, just a bit of background.