Werner Menges
23 June 2008
Windhoek — A Week after a Cessna 210 aircraft carrying German tourists crashlanded at Swakopmund, another Cessna 210 was forced to make an emergency landing on a gravel road southwest of Rehoboth on Saturday.
Two Argentinian tourists were on board the aircraft, which was on a flight for tour operators Wilderness Safaris, The aircraft, which was on a flight from farm Geluk in the Sossusvlei area to Hosea Kutako International Airport, landed after its pilot sent out a Mayday alarm and reported that his plane was experiencing engine failure, Ericksson Nengola, the Director of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport, told The Namibian yesterday.
The pilot and passengers emerged from the incident without any injuries.
Rob Moffett, Director: Marketing and Sales for Wilderness Safaris, said the incident took place between 07h00 and 08h00 on Saturday, and the plane landed about 140 kilometres from Windhoek on the gravel road between Rehoboth and Klein Aub.
He said the passengers were an Argentinian couple who had to catch a flight to South Africa on their way back to Argentina.
They flew out of Namibia on Saturday evening. The couple were also full of praise for their pilot's skill in getting them safely back on firm ground, Moffett said: "The guests said it was actually the smoothest landing of their safari."
Moffett said the aircraft was a chartered plane that had actually had its engine replaced only two months ago. He said it was worrying that another incident involving a Cessna 210 and reported engine problems had taken place in Namibia so shortly after the most recent previous one.
According to Nengola, another Cessna 210 also had an engine problem scare on a flight from Windhoek's Eros Airport to a destination in the north of Namibia on Friday.
After developing engine problems, the pilot of that plane however managed to return safely to Eros Airport, Nengola said.
The Wilderness Safaris plane's emergency landing came a week after a Pleasure Flights Cessna 210 carrying a pilot and five passengers on a flight from Swakopmund to the Sossusvlei area and back crashlanded near the Swakopmund Airport, reportedly after experiencing engine failure.
There were no fatalities, but some of the passengers were seriously injured.
Cessna 210 aircraft have also been involved in two serious accidents in Windhoek earlier this year.
On January 11, one of these planes belonging to Atlantic Aviation crashed in Windhoek's Olympia residential area shortly after taking off from Eros Airport. A South African pilot and five Israeli passengers were killed in that incident.
Another South African pilot and four foreign passengers - two French and two United States nationals - had a luckier escape on May 9, when the Scenic Air Cessna 210 in which they had taken off from Eros Airport crash-landed othe grounds of TransNamib's Gammams Training Centre near the Pionierspark Cemetery after experiencing an engine problem with its take-off from the airport.
No-one was killed in that incident, but the passengers suffered serious injuries. The causes of all these incidents are still being investigated.
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