Captain Key Azari Momo (from middle) along other crew members in a Boeing 787 at Juba International Airport. (Credit: Courtesy).

Captain Key Azari Momo, a veteran pilot who retired in 2021 after 36 years in the aviation industry narrates his journey to becoming one of the first South Sudanese pilots.

The 67-year-old man started his aviation career in 1985 as the first officer with Sudan Airways, after completing his piloting course at Airworks Aviation Training School in Perth, United Kingdom.

“I am grateful, I have been a pilot because of one, I have done something very few have done, and secondly, I am able to tour the whole World.” he told Eye Radio in an interview on Sunday.

“You get to know a lot of people through your career because you meet different people at different places, and at different levels even within the country.”

“If at all somebody dreams to be a pilot, I think that is not a career that you should regret. [Instead], you should be proud of it.” He added.

Until his retirements in June 2021, Azari was flying Boeing 737 Classic with a capacity of up to 144 passengers.

The Boeing plane also has a maximum weight of 56,200 kilograms and flies up to an altitude of 37,000 feet (11 kilometers) above the ground.

“You can take off in good weather conditions, when the temperature is cool and the runway is long enough so you can take off smoothly with this weight and you will fly safely.”

Throughout the three decades of his career, Captain Azari has worked with various aviation companies owned by private and governmental institutions in Africa and Asian countries.

Some of the airlines he worked with include the Sudan Airways in Khartoum, Dolphin Air Group of Companies in Dubai, TransAir Congo in Brazzaville, Sun Air in Khartoum Sudan and Tarcc Aviation.

Born in Kajo-keji in 1956, Azari completed his O’ level at Busoga College in neighboring Uganda in 1975, and returned to Juba, where he got the opportunity to travel to Scotland for his piloting course.

The training was part of the former High Executive Council’s initiative to establish a Southern autonomous government airline company known as Feeder Airlines.

“When I applied, we were shortlisted, we were about 72 applicants at that time and they selected only 37 for the interview.” Azari said.

“So we went for written exams, we had to have mathematics exams, we had to have amplitude test, we had to give current affairs exams and we also had English composition writing at that time.”

According to him, each applicant was conditioned to attain at least 70% marks in each exams paper to qualify for the Perth scholarship.

But Azari had no problem in exams and excelled greatly in English and Mathematics – two of the key subjects in the field.

“I didn’t have any problem with English, I didn’t fear much about mathematics but the technical aspects of flying was what interested me so much.”

He eventually made it to the UK, trained in ground school and flying before acquiring a commercial pilot’s license.

Azari also became competent in aircraft operation, as well as in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

He is also experienced in navigation to different locations and dealing with a multitude of possible abnormal situations.

The flying experience

When Captain Key Azari Momo left for the UK, he was determined to come back home and work with the Feeder Airlines – a Southern carrier proposed by the autonomous authorities after the 1972 Addis Ababa peace agreement.

However, Azari told Eye Radio that the former Khartoum regime was not willing to invest in the aviation sector in the South.

“The office was there, the manager was available but we had no capacity to buy the aircraft.” He said.

Azari added that the former High Executive Council had no resources to procure air crafts for the southern region.

“The money was controlled by the north and the northern government in Khartoum did not release the money to buy the aircraft which the High Executive Council has planned.” He said.

Piloting challenges

As the pilot-in-command engaging in international commercial air transport operations, Captain Key Azari said he came close to crashing, when his plane lost pressurization on the Khartoum – Juba route.

The plane suffered pressurization – a technical fault where air is pumped into and exhausted out of the cabin of the aircraft to keep the pressure in the cabin in a far distance above the ground.

It is a dangerous circumstance in which could lead to disaster, if a pilot fails to use his/her training.

The situation forced him to lower the flying altitude from 31,000 feet to 10,000 feet to enable him land in Juba successfully.

“So I had to immediately make an emergency descend in less than 4 minute and that was one of the challenge I had to make to save lives.”

Lose of pressurization is not the only challenge Captain Azari encountered during his service in aviation industry.

In West Africa, Captain Azari was assigned to work in Gambia for three months with frequent travels to different cities in the region.

He recalls one of the scenario where the windshield close to his rear glass of his co-pilot caught fire and cracked at an altitude of 34,000 feet above Ghanaian.

“Because of the temperature which was very cold up there and as soon as the fire leak the heat and the outside temperature, immediately it crack the glass and we had to make another emergency descend.” Captain Azari narrated.

Despite the turbulent experience in his piloting career, Azari said being an airplane captain is a responsibility in handling any emergency in the plane.

“When you are a captain that means you are the commander and everything in the aircraft depends on you. So you have to manage the situation, you have to plan your flight, you have to accept that everything is in order before you can execute your flight.”

The retirement age limit for pilots had been amended three times by the International Civil Aviation Organization (IACO).

In 1963, the IACO raised the retirement age from 45 years to 60 years for commercial pilots.

However, the upper age limit for pilots engaged in international commercial air transport operations was amended again to 65 years in November 2006.

The current provisions require the pilot-in-command to be less than 60 years of age unless engaged in multi-crew operations.

But the ICAO recommend that for multi-crew operations, the pilot in charge age limit may be extended to less than 65 as long as the co-pilot is under 60 years of age.

The provisions also contain a recommendation to limit co-pilots to less than 65 years of age.

Captain Azari said he retired from international commercial air transport operations in line with the standard set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

“I came to retire not because I did not want to fly, I retire because my time for retirement has come.”
“So in aviation when you reach the age of 65 year-old, you have to retire that is the law in what is called International Civil Aviation Organization.” He added.

“So when I reached that age, I put down my cap and I said thank you very much for the grace that you have given me and I decided to step down simple because my age of retirement has arrived.”