Maputo — The Mozambique Civil Aviation Institute (IACM) has seized a light aircraft, belonging to the US-based NGO, Air Serv International, for landing without authorization in Inhaminga, capital of Cheringoma district, in the central province of Sofala.

The Sofala provincial director of transport and communications, Manuel Guimaraes, confirmed that the plane had been seized last Thursday for making an unauthorised landing on a runway that is no longer in use.

Guimaraes said that the Cheringoma authorities were alarmed by the plane, that was returning from Caia, on the south bank of the Zambezi river, carrying two passengers of foreign nationality, plus the pilot, because they thought this was an emergency landing.

The plane, which had filed a flight plan for a journey from Beira to Caia and back, is now parked in Maputo awaiting the result of investigations to clarify the case.

Air Serv International general director Dale Malmskog justified his pilot's behaviour by a claim that the plane went to Inhaminga to verify the state of the runway for future landings.

But Guimaraes told reporters that inspection of runways is none of the clients' business, but is the exclusive responsibility of the national airports company, Aeroportos de Mocambique (ADM).

One reason that a plane landing unexpectedly at Inhaminga might arouse suspicion is that Cheringoma is one of the districts in Sofala where the former rebel movement Renamo still keeps an illegal contingent of armed men.