Front Lines-USAID Journal September 1989
Agency Mourns Ethiopia Crash Victims
by Jane Sevier Johnson
During a violent storm, a twin-engine plane carrying Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Texas), four
USAID employees, one State Department employee and 10 other people crashed into a rocky
mountainside Aug. 7 in a remote area of western Ethiopia. The wreckage of the de Havilland
Twin Otter was found Aug. 13 in rugged country 75 miles northeast of its destination and
230 miles southwest of Addis Ababa. There were no survivors.
Leland, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger, and his party were en route to the Fugnido refugee camp near the Sudanese border. USAID staff accompanying him were Thomas Worrick, deputy representative in Ethiopia; Worrick's wife, Roberta, an Agency contractor; Gladys Gilbert, special projects officer in charge of refugee assistance; and Foreign Service National (FSN) Debebe Agonafer, agricultural economist.
"These individuals symbolized the best in public service," said Acting Administrator Mark L. Edelman. "They were not only skilled professionals, but humanitarians who had long years of service in the poorest parts of Africa. Their deaths should remind us that we have courageous Americans in posts all over the world, quietly and persistently working for improvements in the lives of others."
A memorial service for the USAID and Department of State employees killed in the crash was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington Aug. 23.
"We have gathered to remember our colleagues, our co-workers who were killed in Ethiopia," Edelman said at the ceremony. "There are no good explanations for why good men and women doing good works are taken from us. I can only point to their works and to the cause to which they were committed-a cause that each felt was larger than life itself."
"These were good people. They were in the field and in the trenches...working to make other lives better, willing to assume the burden of a task that sometimes seemed impossible and oftentimes seemed thankless."
"Gladys Gilbert, Roberta Worrick, Tom Worrick and Debebe Agonafer were respected colleagues and very dear friends," said Fred Fischer, who served as US coordinator for emergency relief in Ethiopia from 1984 to 1986. "What happened to them could have happened to any of us who serve around the world with the Agency for International Development.
"But we knew-and Gladys and Roberta and Tom and Debebe certainly knew and accepted-the risks involved...[They] died doing exactly what they wanted to be doing-bring emergency relief to people in desperate need. And they did not die in vain. They made a difference."
"We honor their memory here today. But their real memorial is in Ethiopia, in the persons of the millions of people whose lives they helped save."
USAID staff visited the refugee camps every six to eight weeks and had been to Fugnido several times. Leland had never visited that particular camp and was eager to see it. Most of the refugees in Fugnido are young boys who have fled the fighting in the Sudan.
The plane encountered severe weather en route, and authorities speculate that the pilot was flying low in search of a landing site when the craft slammed into a cliff 300 feet from the summit. The crash area was so remote that the nearest landing site was 1 1/2 miles away. The recovery team had a three-hour hike to reach the downed plane.
The Worricks had first come to Ethiopia together as Peace Corps volunteers in 1971. An agricultural economist, Thomas Worrick joined the Agency in 1974. After coming to USAID, he served in Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, REDSO/ESA, Liberia and Ethiopia. When drought and the prospect of famine reoccurred in Ethiopia in 1987, the Agency called for volunteers to go to that country. The Worricks volunteered for the assignment.
Roberta Worrick worked for the mission as an emergency program food monitor in 1987 and 1988. She traveled throughout the country to oversee the emergency assistance efforts of the various cooperating organizations. She spoke fluent Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.
Under her pen name, "Maria Thomas", Roberta Worrick had published two well-received books about Africa-a novel, "Antonia Saw the Oryx First", and a book of short stories, "Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage".
The Worricks are survived by their son, Rafael, 23.
Gilbert also had begun her development career in the Peace Corps, serving in India. She entered the Agency as an International Development Intern in 1977 and served in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Washington, D.C., Somalia and Ethiopia.
A health and population specialist who had recently focused on other areas of development, she was noted for seeking assignments in some of the poorest and most desperate countries, including Ethiopia. In addition to managing refugee assistance for the mission, Gilbert coordinated USAID involvement in locust control for Ethiopia and the assistance program for Ethiopia children orphaned because of drought and civil strike.
Gilbert is survived by her husband, Michael Cairney, and a stepson, John Cairney, 25.
Agonafer was the senior Foreign Service National agricultural economist as the mission. He joined the Agency in 1985 after training as an agricultural economist at the Alemaya Agricultural University in Ethiopia. He also received a master's degree in economics from Makerere University in Uganda. Agonafer helped prepare the mission's food crop and agricultural production analysis. He and Thomas Worrick co-wrote the 1989 Ethiopia food needs assessment.
Agonafer is survived by his wife, Woynitu Mehretu Wzo.
The bodies of the nine Americans who died in Ethiopia arrived at Andrews Air Force Base Aug 23 on board an Air Force C-141. They were met by a joint military honor guard of more than 300 watched.
"Each of these talented and able individuals was on a mission of peace, humanity and compassion." Speaker of the House Thomas Foley (D-Wash.) said at the Andrews ceremony. "Let us dedicate ourselves to those values for which they gave their lives."