Author guest post from Stanley Stewart.

Terror over Africa is a ‘tale of two crises’, one of terror and high drama and the other of subterfuge and cover-up, two affairs, although connected, that needed to be told in different ways. The completed book, therefore, may give the impression that this was a straight forward task, but, in fact, it was a complex endeavour that involved a lot of digging, cross checking, researching and investigating. It was also hard work and time consuming.

Bill Hagan, the captain of BA2069, was restricted from talking or writing about aviation matters while employed by BA but, in the years following his incident, he compiled copious notes of his experience for personal therapy and for a record of his events. He retired from BA at the age of 55 in 2002 and immediately joined easyJet in Glasgow, but they also had the same restrictions about aviation issues. He then flew with them for ten years, finally retiring from commercial flying at the age of 65 in November 2012. He was now free from any publishing constraints, but the incident had occurred twelve years before with all three reports of the event having been withheld from public viewing. Owing to a lack of information, therefore, interest in the incident had faded and by then he had assumed that the story had waned.

In 2013 he used his notes to prepare a presentation entitled ‘The Nairobi Incident’, and he told his tale on a monthly basis at an hotel in Scotland as well as in flying clubs. I, of course, knew of Captain Hagan and had previously spoken to him on the phone, but it was on one of his visits to a flying club, of which I was a member, that I met him in person for the first time. Now Bill and I had caught up, I later discussed with him the idea of writing a book together about his event, but first I had to convince him that his incident had not been forgotten.

What Bill Hagan needed most for his notes, however, was to have the withheld abridged CAA Review released, and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 provided the solution. His first request for disclosure was refused but, in late 2013, a second attempt was successful and he was then able to freely use the data in the public domain. By then Bill had accumulated a vast amount of material but it was going the be a very challenging task to turn it into a readable manuscript. The tale was also complicated, there was still much to investigate and many questions remained outstanding,

In March 2014, Malaysian flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared and one theory amongst many was that the same had happened then as on the Nairobi Incident and suddenly, almost fourteen years after Bill’s own incident, a substantial interest in flight BA2069 was rekindled worldwide. He now became the centre of attention and his opinion was valued, so any doubts he had of the significance of his own incident were soon erased. ‘Now,’ Bill declared, ‘the time to write a book has arrived.’

We then began the task of working together and, on one of our meetings, we sailed to Bute on Bill’s yacht and then walked overland to Ettrick Bay where Andrew Baird had attempted in 1910 to fly his monoplane, the first Scottish built, heavier than air, powered machine. Just after take-off the aircraft banked sharply to the right and the aircraft ploughed into the sand, damaging the right main wheel and wing. It had been a hugely significant attempt but, sadly, it has now mostly been forgotten. While reading a plaque of the event we got talking to an elderly lady out walking and we told her of our book and of the working title, The Nairobi Incident. ‘Oh no,’ she exclaimed, ‘that’s not going to catch anyone’s attention, you need to call it something like Terror over Africa.’ And so, we had a title!

The book, therefore, believe it or not, was actually conceived 12 years ago in 2013, thirteen years after the incident in December 2000 and, in 2014, we started collaborating on the writing. It soon became clear that we faced a massive task and after about three years of hard work we only had half a manuscript. By then Bill had completed his notes so we decided to have a break and to return to the task at an unspecified date.

I persevered with writing the second half of the manuscript using his notes, but when I called much later about restarting work together, he announced that he had decided not to continue. His response caught me by surprise but I completely understood, for the event had been a hugely traumatic and life changing experience for Bill and his family. It had also always been Bill’s intention to compile notes as a record of his incident and now he had finished his task.

Throughout 2018, I worked on forming Bill’s notes into a 120,000 word manuscript that he could use as a record of his story, and then in 2019 I took time out to decide what to do. Much later I contacted the Society of Authors for advice and they, to my surprise, suggested that I write the book on my own, something I hadn’t contemplated. As long as I didn’t write about any personal details of Bill and stuck only to the story that would be an option.

The only way to do this, and to cut it down to size, was to completely rewrite the manuscript, and support arrived in the form of lockdowns, so, in 2020, I began the rewriting task. Further research also had to be conducted to validate the book and the rumour of a BA cover-up had to be investigated. By then the information of the stewardess’s broken leg was known and, by researching the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) regulations and the released abridged CAA Review’s evidence, I incidentally discovered that there really had been a cover-up. This was a huge shock to me as it had revealed that BA had known of the significance of the broken from the outset but had failed to inform the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AIB). The exposure of an allegedly true cover-up finally resolved earlier suspicions.

It took me several years to finish the book but, by late 2023, I had a completed manuscript of 85,000 words that I felt was suitable for publication, but refining of the text continued into 2024. I then searched for a publisher and, in November 2024, Pen and Sword accepted my book for publication.

Order your copy here.