Monrovia – It has been confirmed that the total of 138 passengers who had been stranded at the Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca Morocco since Sunday arrived at Roberts International Airport in Margibi County by 4:30 am Thursday morning.
Report by Mae Azango [email protected]
“We paid our money for the airline services but we were treated as criminals, sleeping on the cold floor without food or water after they refused to provide a plane to bring us home to our families. “
“I hope our government will take action against Royal Air Maroc because they do not have good service” – An angry Air Maroc passenger Identified only as Johnson
According to Transport Minister Angelia Cassel Bush, the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) told her they were making all necessary efforts to bring in the remaining passengers to Liberia.
Reports had it that 450 passengers including Liberians, Ivoirians, Guineans and Sierra Leone were stranded without food and water in Casablanca after the airline was unable to provide a flight to take the passengers to their various destinations.
Minister Bush said it was the same Royal Air Maroc airplane that brought the passengers.
According to an unconfirmed report, a Liberian woman was injured very seriously after the stranded passengers embarked upon a strike action in demand to take have a flight take them to their destinations.
The Air Maroc flight was bound for Liberia, Guinea and Togo, sources told FrontPage Africa.
A Liberia passenger, who feared that the process was far from being resolved, told this paper Tuesday that it may have taken days before they left if nothing was done.
Stranded passengers, weary of sleep are lying in the corridors of the Mohammed V International Airport as authorities seemed not to be listening to their quest for comfort or basic needs. Guards prevented journalists from seeing the manager of the airline for comments.
Oumu Soh was uneasy and worried, but yet prevented by security from seeing the Royal Air Morac Airline Manager, when she walked into Royal Air Maroc office in Monrovia. Oumu is one of the many persons who family members have been stranded in Morocco since Sunday, due to the shortage of Air Plane.
“I have three family members who have been in Morocco since Sunday and they told me there is no airplane to bring them to Liberia,” she lamented in an interview with this reporter.
“I am very worried because they have not eaten any food and they are prevented from coming out of the airport because they do not have any visa for Morocco.
“The Security is still refusing for me to see the manager because he said the manager is very busy seeing other people.”
Many other people were waiting in the headquarters of the Airlines to see the manager, as no employee was allowed to speak to anyone.
“I have my sister coming but she is still in Morocco, so we are trying to find another way for her to pass through Ivory Coast and come to Liberia,” said another passenger, who preferred not to be named.
The Transport Ministry through its Press and Public Affairs Officer Samuel Barjibo had said on Tuesday that he or his Ministry was not aware of the situation unfolding in Morocco, but said he would follow up the following day.
There has also been an issue of luggage disappearance onboard Royal Air Maroc.
In September, passengers of the Moroccan airliner warned the public against flying onboard the airline or be willing to have their luggage go missing or items stolen from them.
Several passengers boarding the flight between Freetown and Europe, via Casablanca told FrontPage Africa that they frequently lost their luggage onboard the flight and had not gotten any redress.
But the Country Manager for Royal Air Maroc in Liberia, Loudyi Mohammed Amine then apologized for the incident.
However, some recent victims of the apparent luggage theft onboard the flight told this paper that despite a full record of their movements and a barcoded baggage tag, Royal Air Maroc could not even locate their luggage for the past three weeks running.
They expressed frustration over the predicament Royal Air Moroc had put them in, nothing that there was a need it stopped.
The victims told FrontPage Africa that Royal Air Maroc had not even bothered to reply or react in any other constructive manner concerning their missing luggage.
One of the victims who also lost his luggage onboard Royal Air Morac flight from New York, Success Dennis, said it was getting unbearable to constantly see an international airline institution engaging in “dubious” activities with specific focus on the alleged stealing of their luggage.
“For me I see this airline as a dubious airline. I will get my all my luggage back, the management of this airline cannot tell me my bags lost and they expect me to let it go just like that,” Dennis said.
“It is frustrating for me as passenger to lose all that I was coming with,” he said.
Another passenger Thiermon Diallo described the situation as a dream, expressing skepticism over whether or not he would ever get redress since he was an ordinary person.
“I pray strongly that I get my luggage from that airline as soon as possible because I brought lot of things for people and I paid for them at the airline but I don’t know why they will even treat me that way by not bringing my bags,” he complained.
Some of the victimized passengers said they were tired with the poor customer services at Air Morac, nothing that there was a need it stopped.
“The aircraft resembles flying rubbish bins, and communication en route is minimal even if something goes wrong, such as an unplanned detour.”
“If you do decide to risk it, my advice is to travel with hand luggage only, especially if you are connecting through Casablanca.”
“I have heard testimonies, though, of luggage disappearing on point-to-point flights destination,” Kelley Morris, a victim told the FrontPageAfrica.
“They stole my bags and my luggage, since the past three weeks I been coming here for my items but any time I come here they always tell me to wait, this airline is a 4-1-9 entity and it can no longer be trusted, there are many thieves working on the flight,” Timothy Giddings angrily noted.