Questions over how quickly Jimmy Mubenga received medical help after
collapsing under three security guards on BA flight
Paul Lewis and Matthew Taylor
Saturday October 16 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/15/deportee-help-flight-dying-witness
An asylum seeker who was being deported on a flight from Heathrow
begged passengers to help him moments before he collapsed and died
beneath three security guards, according to a new witness who has
spoken to the Guardian.
The witness ? the third to come forward in the last 24 hours ? raised
questions over how quickly Jimmy Mubenga was given medical assistance
after he lost consciousness on the flight to Angola.
He said he was haunted by Mubenga's pleas for help.
"For the rest of the my life I'm always going to have that at the back
of my mind ? could I have done something? That is going to bother me
every time I go to sleep," the witness, an oil worker who gave his
name as Michael, said.
"I didn't get involved because I was scared I would get kicked off the
flight and lose my job. But that man paid a higher price than I would
have."
The 51-year-old US citizen contacted a Guardian reporter via Twitter
today after reading what he believed to be misleading accounts of
Mubenga's death released by the Home Office and G4S, a private
security firm the government has contracted to escort deportees.
Police are investigating the death of Mubenga, a 46-year-old Angolan
who lost consciousness when three G4S guards attempted to restrain him
on British Airways Flight 77 flight on Tuesday night. He was later
taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been
made.
On Thursday, two passengers told the Guardian that guards placed
Mubenga in handcuffs and heavily restrained him [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/14/security-guards-accused-jimmy-mubenga-death"
title="] while the aircraft was still on the runway. One said Mubenga
complained of breathing problems before passing out.
Michael said he heard Mubenga complain he was unable to breathe.
"I'm pretty sure it will turn out to be asphyxiation," he said. "The
last thing we heard the man say was he couldn't breathe. We had three
security guards and each one of them looked like they weighed 100kg
plus, bearing down and holding him down ? from what I could see below
the seats."
Michael described as "completely false" the official accounts of
Mubenga's death, released by the Home Office and G4S on Wednesday.
The Home Office said a deportee had "taken ill" while on the flight.
G4S used similar wording, saying Mubenga "became unwell", forcing the
flight to return to Heathrow. "Sadly, the detainee passed away upon
arrival at the hospital," the statement said.
Michael said he became aware that a man was in distress as soon as he
boarded the plane.
"The first thing I saw was the stewardesses running forward. One of
them was almost in spasms she was shaking that bad ... I saw three men
trying to pull [Mubenga] down below the seats. All I could see was his
head sticking up above the seats and he was hollering out: 'Help me'.
"He just kept saying 'Help me, help me'. Then he disappeared below the
seats. You could see the three security guards sitting on top of him
from there. And then it went kind of quiet."
There are differing accounts as to how long Mubenga was restrained.
The two previous witnesses estimated he was restrained for 10 minutes
and 45 minutes respectively.
Michael, who said he was sitting less than 6 metres (20ft) from
Mubenga, said he watched the security guards on top of him for around
five minutes, but then looked away as the plane taxied on to the
runway. The flight was later aborted.
"What I am trying to understand is: if the man was putting up such a
fuss and a fight that it took three burly security guards to hold him
down, why didn't they take him off the plane?" Michael said.
"Obviously if I was putting a commotion up and I wasn't a deportee
they would take me off the plane, because they would call me a threat
to the flight."
He criticised BA for not giving passengers the choice over whether
they wanted to fly on a deportation flight. Airlines in the UK are
required by law to carry deportees.
"I'm not sure [Mubenga] even got any medical attention until he got
back to the terminal," Michael said. "I didn't hear anything over the
PA: 'Is there a doctor on board, is there a medic on board?'
"I'm not sure he got any attention from anybody until the medics got
there and that was 15, 20 minutes after everything went quiet. Maybe
somebody could have revived him if they had been asked. I can give
CPR ? I've been trained in it."
An engineer who works Angola's rich oil fields alongside other western
expatriates, Michael said Mubenga's death spoke to hypocrisy in global
border control. "You have got a man deported from over there. Did you
ever stop to think how many British are over here, making ?400 or ?500
a day in Angola?"
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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