Tasman (Tas) Beattie came to Sierra Leone Airways about the beginning of April 1980. He came from Malawi (I believe) were he had converted his PPL to a CPL licence and so he then joined SLA as a Capt on the BN2 MkIII Trislander a/c: converting to type with Loganair in Scotland before completing his line training on type on 29 Apr 80. Unfortunately he was caught out in severe line squall weather with torrential thunderstorm and rain and had to force land his a/c (9L-LAR) on John Obey Beach towards the SE end of the Freetown peninsula on 26 May 80. All on board were unhurt, but the a/c nose-wheel assembly had buckled and had to be rebuilt before the a/c could be flown out and over the Freetown Peninsula back to main base of Hastings airfield on 1 Jun 80.
I lost track of Tas when I left Freetown about the middle of July but I believe Tas eventually became Chief Pilot for a while before moving on again perhaps towards the end of 1981 / start 82. His book Diamonds is a story based on his experiences and knowledge gained while living in Sierra Leone and the operations of the diamond mining at Yengema.