Lapses of Memory = Literary License

Wonder of wonders, I heard from "Hoffman" about my previous post, "Brief Visit to Zaire". His memory was much better than mine. Here's the 'truer' story of our trip to Zaire. It doesn't make my earlier post any the less fun, however. I'll just change the label from non-fiction to fiction and all will be well.
We actually flew from Libreville, Gabon to Pt. Noire in the Congo first, and then our adventures started in trying to get from Pt. Noire to Cabinda, Angola. (The stay in Pt. Noire warrants a post of its own, I should tell you.)

Hoffman remembered that our flight from Libreville to Pt. Noire was an adventure in itself.

"...the plane we flew on was supposed to be Air Gabon flight but was a Lina Congo plane (not recommended by Corp Aviation) and had major mechanical problems at the gate. ... The mechanic who was working on it was in the cabin by the pilots' door when we took off. We weren't sure if he was there to fix anything in flight or if he was going to be personally accountable for any problem he didn't fix on the ground."

Hoffman also had a better recollection about our trip from Pt. Noire to Cabinda via Zaire:

"The flight from Pt. Noire was on Aero Servis, which was a commercial carrier that only did the local flights. It had regular flights to Cabinda was well as Muanda, Zaire.

"While we were in transit (I think we were still in Nigeria) the Cabinda airport was closed due to bomb incident. It was [Nigeria Finance Manager's] idea that we fly to Muanda [aka "Banana Base"]. He told us that he would have a [Company] helicopter waiting to pick us up and bring us to Malongo [aka Cabinda]. Well we landed in Muanda and no [Company] helicopter. So we started going through Customs which wasn't going well. I did have a Zaire visa but it was a single entry that had already been used. The local [Company] guy who came to get us was perplexed since we didn't have visas. He radioed to [the Country Manager] looking for direction. I remember this - hearing [his] voice on radio saying '...tell those guys that if they don't want to spend the night in a Zaire jail, they will get back on the plane and leave the country.' So we got back on plane not knowing what we were going to do since our Congo visas were no longer valid either.

"When we got back on the plane, we found out from the pilot that they were going to Cabinda, as the airport had reopened."

 He also remembered:

"It was definitely one of the more challenging trips. One thing I remember - you were sitting in front of me on the flight into Muanda and when you didn't see any helicopter on the ground waiting for us, you turned and gave me the dirtiest look."

And I did too!

So THAT'S the real story ... and, thank you, T.H.