Aircraft arrives to airlift Hajj pilgrims

Accra, Dec. 14, GNA - A chartered aircraft arrived at the Kotoka International airport on Thursday night to airlift stranded Muslim pilgrims to Mecca for the Hajj while a second aircraft is expected on Friday, sources at the Koitoka Intenational Airport said on Friday.

After spending one week in the open along the road between the Aviance Cargo Village and the Aviation Social Centre at the airport, the pilgrims are finally hopeful that with the arrival of the aircraft, they might be able to make it to the Holy land of Mecca after all.

There was near stampede on Thursday night as the stranded Muslims struggled to process their documents for the flight.

The flight arrangements which have come about through the intervention of President John Agyekum Kufuor would see 499 Muslim faithful who were stranded last year as a result of the same situation leaving before the rest of the pilgrims are processed, sources said.

Airport sources told the Ghana News Agency that the aircraft could ferry just about 250 pilgrims at a time, but at least two more planes were expected to assist in airlifting the pilgrims to Mecca.

According to the sources, the flights were also expected to make return trips until the stranded Muslim had been airlifted.

Although the flight has not yet taken off, it is expected that a number of the estimated 2,700 stranded pilgrims would depart the country to begin their pilgrimage on Friday.

The Hajj Board has disappointed the would-be pilgrims who have been left stranded for almost a week.

They had lived in unbearable conditions such as sleeping on tiny pieces of cloth and boards in the open without any protection from the vagaries of the weather.

Men and women are crammed together in the open without any privacy and under poor sanitary conditions.