Windhoek — The Managing Director of Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), Tobie Aupindi, has been in enough plane accidents to make most people take to the road instead.

On Friday, a chartered plane carrying Aupindi and some senior NWR staff crashed on landing at an airstrip at Namutoni in the Etosha National Park. The wheel of the plane hit a small anthill on a secondary landing strip, causing the wheel to collapse and the aircraft swerve off the airstrip. No one was injured. The secondary airstrip was used because a zebra was standing on the primary airstrip at Namutoni. Aupindi and his staff were in Etosha to prepare for the groundbreaking ceremony at NRW's new Onkoshi Camp north of Namutoni.

It is the third time Aupindi has been involved in a flight scare. In September 2006, the wheel of a chartered plane carrying former Environment Minister Willem Konjore, Aupindi and some journalists collapsed after it hit a stone upon landing at the Sossusvlei airstrip. The plane was taking the group to the ground-breaking ceremony of the Sossus Dune Lodge. Towards the end of last year, a plane taking Aupindi to Sossusvlei had to land at a nearby farm because bad weather prevented it from landing at the airstrip.

Yesterday, Aupindi said NWR had started upgrading gravel airstrips in national parks. He said the airstrips would be fenced off and resurfaced. The landing strips will not be tarred though, as this would not look environmentally friendly to tourists.