The Tragedy of Dornier and Dash

Disclaimer: For worriers out there, this preface is to assure that being situated in Majuro, the following does not affect me at all.
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It many countries this is the kind of situation one might call a ‘national emergency’. The entire fleet of domestic air planes are grounded. Air Marshall Islands, what hath happened to you? It’s not the airports. International flights are incoming and outgoing on schedule. But it is not possible to get a plane to 22 of the 24 inhabited atolls. That puts a third of the population of the country reachable only by boat. That means that if there is a medical emergency beyond the scope of a clinic, people can’t be emergency evacuated to a better staffed and equipped hospital.

This is the Tragedy of Dornier and Dash. Yes, they are the ones not doing their job. But before we blame them, we can point out that they fly in salty winds and don’t get the best of maintenance work done to them. They are the two airplanes operated by Air Marshall Islands, the nationally owned and exclusive domestic carrier. The government’s looking into renting a plane and finding the parts they need (the Dash-8 needs a new engine).

Travelling exclusively by boat is highly inefficient. And so now, when school is supposed to have started already, most of the school principals and the majority of teachers are stuck on Majuro. Boats are operating, but they are few and move slowly.

Bikini atoll, the site of nuclear testing, is currently a profitable tourist attraction for shipwreck diving. However, a group of wealthy tourists are stuck there. Although radiation levels won’t affect them by being there, they can’t eat anything that grows there, or they will get radiation poisoning. Hopefully they brought enough food with them to last until either a plane is repaired or a ship on its way arrives.

It’s the Tragedy of Dornier and Dash-8. As I mentioned above, it doesn’t affect me because international flights are unaffected by this problem.

**Breaking Rumours!***

As I write this, I just heard that the Dash-8 has acquired an engine. It may take 1-2 weeks to repair, but the fleet may be back in the air this month.