Pensioner trying to fly length of Africa in 1940s plane crashes – and ends up in police cell
A PENSIONER trying to fly the length of Africa in a 1940s plane has crash landed in Kenya.
Maurice Kirk, 72, escaped with minor injuries and was put up in a police cell overnight.
He aims to keep going — despite suffering two engine failures, having no satellite tracking or a working compass on his 1943 Piper Cub plane.
Maurice, of Bristol, is part of a vintage air rally from Crete to Cape Town.
He is taking part in the 8,000-mile trans Africa vintage plane rally with 14 other single-engined vintage planes.
The rally, which is being sponsored by Puma Energy, will raise money for UNICEF and Bird Life International as its pilots attempt to cross the continent at low altitude.
The amateur pilot has flown off the radar twice and organisers have asked him to withdraw.
He wrote on Facebook: "Maurice has crashed late last night desperate to get into Kenya.
"Come find me, please, in Kenya, anyone who can be paid to rescue the old girl just 30k from Lokichocio on the only road?
"She needs a minimum of a left u/c and prop, the rest can be bent straight to get out, thorns have made her a 'a little ragged'!
"My injuries are minor or old war wounds given a jolt!
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"After a night in a police cell, an experience I do not recommend, hours in the dust and dirt back to Koepata an Mango hotel but a hot bath and full English breakfast... dream on.
"I remain ashamed at the standards they live by as to where I have just existed for 24 years... real poverty everywhere.
"I remain besotted with this place despite the 'hardships'."
In a later post, he added: "I am just so tired."
Amateur pilot and University of Bristol graduate Maurice used to be a vet and has been described as the "bad boy" of the profession.
He's had a string of court cases for refusing to give a sample when stopped on suspicion of drink driving and abusing police.
In 2002, he was kicked out of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for "disgraceful conduct".
He was famously arrested for landing a replica World War One biplane on private land near US president George Bush's Texas ranch.
The flyer, who was once Oliver Reid’s vet, was also rescued after ditching in the Caribbean in an attempt to fly solo around the world in a 65-year-old plane in 2008.