Wednesday 19 September 2012

Air charter company condemns explicit pics

Balmoral Central Contracts SA, the Johannesburg-based air charter company that employed eight South Africans (and four others) killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul two days ago, has published a statement on its website condemning the circulation of explicit photos of the incident. "There are some gruesome pictures doing the rounds in the media at the moment and we would earnestly request that you respect the dignity of the victims and the families by not publishing pictures in your publications showing the bodies of the victims". The only such pictures I know of were credited to Reuters, which should know better.
The statement continues: "Having lived through what was probably the worst night of our lives things are starting to settle.  While we are completely incapable of understanding the lunacy and hatred that would motivate a young woman (or any other human being) to deliberately set out to destroy herself and the lives of more than a dozen innocent people, yet we will not allow ourselves to be slaves to unforgiveness and we therefore choose to forgive. We are reminded that she too has parents and possibly brothers and sisters and our hearts and prayers go out to them in their time of loss."
A very touching comment.
Balmoral, which was formed in 1992, operates 17 aircraft in Afghanistan: 4 x Beech 1900C's; 7 x Beech 1900D's; 5 x King Air 200s and 1 x MI8MTV helicopter. All are based at Kabul International Airport.

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