Cablegate Chronicles: Warthogs Delay Ambassador's Arrival

This is an installment from our on-going series on the adventures of American diplomats and the people they monitor. The button below will take you to another random episode.

It's not always easy to get to Zimbabwe.

FROM: HARARE, ZIMBABWE
TO: STATE DEPARTMENT
DATE: NOVEMBER 9, 2009
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
SEE FULL CABLE

¶3. Warthogs Delay Ambassador's Arrival... This week we are thrilled to welcome Ambassador Charles A. Ray to Post. He arrived on November 4 after his November 3 arrival was delayed because of a bizarre accident hours earlier. On takeoff to Bulawayo on the afternoon of November 3, an Air Zimbabwe flight struck a group of about five warthogs and veered off the runway, destroying some of the runway lights. Passengers on the Air Zim flight were stuck in the plane for about two hours; security authorities forced passengers to surrender any photographic evidence of the crash before they were allowed to leave. All night flights on November 3, including Ambassador Ray's South African Airways flight from Johannesburg, were cancelled. The government did not comment on the warthogs' fate.

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