Chaka still recovering after close call with jet

Just over two years ago Chaka Richards encountered a close brush with death when he was blown from a road north of the airstrip at the E.T Joshua Airport by jet exhaust, which threw him several yards away into a nearby river.

He sustained several bruises, a fractured pelvis and an injured right arm in this experience, and his recovery proves that miracles still happen.{{more}}

Chaka, now 21, and reflecting on the fateful Easter Monday afternoon, said it is good to be alive.

“Right now I can walk again but my left pelvis still hurts. And, if I am outside washing in the cold it would start hurting for no reason,” Chaka said.

He admits that despite the fact that doctors have told him the pain should eventually go away, he is worried that his injury will affect him later.

“Sometimes I get trouble walking fast. I can’t even play soccer or cricket anymore because after a few hours my pelvis starts to hurt,” said the security guard who hails from New Montrose.

The young man has reached a settlement on the matter with the authorities.

The Seventh Day Adventist lad is expressing thanks to the several churches whose members visited him and prayed for his recovery.

Richards, a former resident of Mesopotamia, took a trip to the Villa beach on that fateful Easter Monday with his friends.

However, after a day of fun, disaster struck when the young man and his friends were returning home and used the bypass route at Arnos Vale near to the airstrip.

Recalling the frightful drama Richards told SEARCHLIGHT “the jet was coming up the airstrip as we were walking across the road. The heat and force was increasing so much that we had to hold on to the wire. Then the wind just lift me up and blew me in the river and land me on a big stone”.

“I thought it was a dream,” said Richards who was knocked unconscious.

“I just thank God he’s alive,” Chaka’s sister Pethion Greene, told SEARCHLIGHT.

She added, that she is very grateful to God that her brother was not crippled during the incident.

Since the accident the E.T Joshua Airport has had signs erected warning people not to use the road when the airstrip is in use.