{"id":26534,"date":"2014-10-24T15:13:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T22:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/?p=26534"},"modified":"2019-06-10T15:36:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T22:36:54","slug":"30-years-later-world-vision-pilots-talk-ethiopia-famine-bbc-famous-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/hunger-news-stories\/30-years-later-world-vision-pilots-talk-ethiopia-famine-bbc-famous-report","title":{"rendered":"30 years later, World Vision pilots talk of Ethiopia famine, BBC’s famous report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1984, Will Rew, then 31, and Keith Ketchum, then 25, flew aid missions that provided a lifeline to thousands of people starving in Ethiopia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For about 12 hours a day, they ferried emergency food and supplies to far-flung communities stricken by drought and famine. Each flight of their de Havilland Twin Otter plane could haul up to 2 tons of food to help people stave off hunger, sickness, and death.<\/p>\n

Conflict in the northern provinces of Tigre and Eritrea added to the people’s agony and limited relief agencies’ access to communities hardest hit by the drought. And Keith got a little miffed Oct. 19 when orders came down to take BBC reporters, rather than food, to those northern communities. But the BBC wanted to go there, and World Vision was willing to take them.<\/p>\n

“We despised journalists because they [each] weighed 70 to 75 kilos (154 to 165 pounds),” says Keith, half-joking. “So we’d have to leave (behind) a bag of grain.”<\/p>\n

So for three days, the two aviators shuttled BBC reporters Michael Buerk and Mike Wooldridge with cameraman Mohammed Amin in World Vision’s small, twin-engine plane between the capital city of Addis Ababa and northern towns of Mek’ele, Korem, and Alamata.<\/p>\n

An impactful assignment<\/h2>\n

During their visit to one of the worst sites — Mek’ele — Keith carried Wooldridge’s recorder as Mike documented the hordes of emaciated and sick people huddled in makeshift feeding shelters, waiting for help.<\/p>\n

Keith remembers seeing Mike with a group of families in Mek’ele when they suddenly went eerily silent. “He looked at me, very seriously, and said, ‘This story tells itself.’ He wanted his words to be punctuated by the pain and agony that he was witnessing.”<\/p>\n

The assignment was also dangerous. Will says that on one occasion, they dropped the news crew off in one town and parked the plane overnight in another one that was safer.<\/p>\n

Then, as quickly as they came, the journalists left, and Will and Keith returned to their life-saving missions, oblivious to the implications of having that BBC crew aboard.<\/p>\n

“You fly grain, or you fly the BBC, or whatever,” says Will. “It was just another part of the adventure.”<\/p>\n

But in London, 30 years ago on Oct. 23, the three journalists told the story of a “biblical famine” endangering an African country.<\/p>\n