Branson's airliner is first to bring aid to the heart of Iraq

It was a sweet moment for Sir Richard Branson as he stepped on to the sand-whipped tarmac of Basra airport yesterday from a Virgin Atlantic plane bearing 60 tons of aid for Iraq's war-ravaged hospitals – but curiously there were no Iraqis in sight.

Dressed in chinos, and a lilac shirt but without the trademark woolly jumper, the Virgin tycoon recalled he had been on the last commercial flight out of the Iraqi capital in 1990, just before the invasion of Kuwait. Thirteen years on, he was on board the first civilian jet to land in Iraq since then.

It was also a moment to savour the notion he had got his revenge against Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator barred the Virgin chairman from crossing Iraq in a balloon in 1998. A letter requesting Iraqi clearance has just surfaced in the documents scattered through the rubble of Iraqi ministries.

But even on the best-planned missions, not everything goes to plan. After the 747-400 touched down just before 9am, to a welcome from the 1st (UK) Armoured Division, one soldier broke both legs during the unloading.

There was also no guarantee that the new supplies would not vanish from the hospitals just as quickly as they arrived. And there was disappointment among a group of exiled Iraqi medical experts on the trip. They found themselves confined to the airport for the truncated five-hour visit, originally scheduled to last three days, though they did manage a brief meeting with local doctors to assess the needs of Iraqi hospitals.

The exiles expressed disappointment that they had to plead to leave the base to visit Basra's teaching hospital – and they were only allowed to spend a tantalising 15 minutes there. The Virgin boss said the British military, whose soldiers are ensconced in the marble halls of Basra airport terminal, were "not ready" for a longer trip. Another hiccup involved the abandonment of a plan for 400 British soldiers to return home on the flight, after Saudi Arabia had clearance problems.

The idea for the trip arose the day after Baghdad fell, when the businessman Luay Shakarchy contacted Sir Richard and galvanised him. "The pictures of an Iraqi girl with her leg amputated made me feel there will be thousands of Iraqis who would contribute,'' Mr Shakarchy said.

Sir Richard even managed to produce an Iraqi co-pilot, Marhab "Mike'' Abunayla, another exile, who was making a return home for the first time in 22 years. The flight brought equipment ranging from cancer drugs to incubators to replace some of the equipment stolen during the frenzy of looting in Basra three weeks ago.

The worry is the same criminals who looted the hospitals the first time will make off with this aid, too. The British military who control the region admitted yesterday security in the area could still not be guaranteed. An Army spokesman, Captain Anthony Liddell, said "criminal elements" in the city had clashed with a Black Watch unit early on Wednesday, 10 miles from the airport, and that soldiers had killed a gunman. "There's still shooting every day. It's not safe yet,'" said a staff sergeant.

The British officer in charge of Basra's medical system, Colonel John Graham, wants to encourage the World Health Organisation to open a Basra office because "if it's safe for Iraqi doctors, it's safe for us''. But a colleague of his admitted: "You give aid to an orphanage then you turn your back and the bad guys come and take it away.''

Sir Richard revealed yesterday that the former South African president Nelson Mandela had come "very close'' to issuing a personal appeal to the Iraqi leader to step down and spare his people from a devastating war.

Sir Richard said he had approached Mr Mandela in the months before the conflict, as he was "the only man in the world'' who could take such initiative, but the former president eventually declined to act.

"He was so against the idea of the leader of a sovereign state being asked to step down that he just couldn't do it,'' Sir Richard said.

The Virgin boss is not known as a man who suffers from camera shyness. But Sir Richard said he had kept an uncustomary "low profile'' before the war while his private discussions with Mr Mandela were going on. Asked about his feelings now on the conflict Sir Richard said he was "swinging like a pendulum'', like so many other people.

The aid that was brought in is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed – and to what a ship can bring in – but the trip's sponsors hope their example will prompt governments into action. Meanwhile Sir Richard insisted his own trip was not a one-off. "If there's need for more, there will be more," he promised.

¿ A plane with 19 tons of EU-funded medical supplies destined for Baghdad is being delayed for at least a week, after US military authorities withheld clearance for its second attempted departure yesterday.

The cargo which includes surgical equipment will be grounded at least until next Tuesday, after US officials objected to the route the plane proposed to take from Belgium to Baghdad via Turkish airspace.