Mike Huckabee’s Close Call

It sounds like Mike Huckabee had a close call when trying to fly out of Rwanda. Wow. Here is the e-mail I received.

Late last night, we were rolling down the runway for take-off from Kiglali when we lost the right engine and had to abort the take-off. Fortunately, our ground speed was only 60 mph and the pilots acted professionally and immediately shut down the take off and stopped the plane before we attempted to go wheels up. The reason I know that is because I was in the cockpit with the crew when it happened. Of all the times to be invited to sit up front for the take off in a 767, it would be last night! As we rolled, it first sounded like we had blown a tire, but passengers on the right side of the plane saw flames coming out of the engine. There was an apparent air pressure problem in the engine and we lost the engine within seconds of the critical “point of no return”. We were taken off the plane and brought back to the hotel, getting to sleep around 2am, looking for flights to get us home. The latest for me is a very long journey that will go from Rwanda to Nairobi to Paris to Atlanta and eventually to Little Rock IF—and I stress IF—all goes according to plan. I have to cancel some speeches and events, but in light of what might have been, it’s not that bad.

If you saw the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” you know Don Cheadle’s character took care of the unexpected guests for over 100 days during the Genocide. Kigali is now a very safe and orderly city, but if Don Cheadle could get me a flight out of here straightway, I would be ever so grateful!

The trip has been truly remarkable in being able to see a nation reborn and experiencing spiritual and economic revival. There’s still a long way to go, but yesterday we met with President Kagame for almost 4 hours and came away with real admiration for a determined leader who does not want his country to become dependent, but independent. He turns away relief efforts that do not create capacity for growth and empowerment of his own people. His refreshing view is that to simply dump money into the hands of needy people is wrong and counter-productive. He is about creating real jobs and insisting that people work and earn what they receive. I will offer updates when and if I can—often dependent on a VERY unstable internet capacity here.

Even though I am not able to participate the way I had planned, I hope you will still join me in promoting the candidates that will be posting on Huck PAC throughout the day. We have asked the candidates and supporters of Huck PAC to blog about their ideas and solutions to the problems we face. Many will also discuss their feelings and beliefs about marriage and life I hope you will visit us starting at noon today and check back in frequently throughout the day.

I also ask, and this is critical, that you promote what you read by sending posts about the candidates to friends and family. Their is a “send to a friend link” in the upper right corner of each blog post. We will track the number of friends these blogs are being sent to. We think it is a great way to show how committed we are to these candidates. Also share these blog posts with bloggers you know and encourage them to blog about what they read.

We have a chance to do something special for the candidates today, if and only if, we work together.

From Kigali (still),

Mike Huckabee