Denver Isaacs
6 August 2008
Five people narrowly escaped death yesterday morning when they emerged from a plane crash in Windhoek with only slight injuries.
The accident happened at around 07h45 inside the perimeters of the Eros Airport, just after the Cessna 310 owned by Albatross Air had taken off.
The plane was apparently on its way to Nepara near Rundu in the far north of the country.
The Director of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Erickson Nengola, said the Ministry had launched an investigation into the incident.
Nengola said, according to the pilot, she aborted a first attempt to take off after complaining that she was not happy with the plane's speed and airflow.
Engineers at Eros Airport checked the plane, Nengola said, and gave the pilot clearance to resume her intended flight.
She took off again, he said, and realised that again she was not getting the take-off she wanted.
By this time, the plane had already gained some height and the front wheel made contact with the perimeter fence of the airport.
This apparently caused the plane to flip over and land on its roof.
All five occupants managed to escape from the wreckage without help.
Nengola said their injuries ranged from slight to minor.
A request for comment from Albatross Air was met with assurances that a statement would be released by this morning, giving more detail of the incident.
The Namibian Airports Company similarly promised more information in a press statement.
The nationalities of the five passengers could not be confirmed by deadline yesterday.
Questioned about the recent string of plane accidents across the country, Nengola said only that a number of reports into these were nearly done.
These included the January crash in Olympia which led to the death of five Israeli citizens and a South African pilot, as well as a crash-landing at Swakopmund last month in which another six people were involved.
The spate of accidents started on October 22 last year, when a single-engine Beechcraft crashed near the Trade Centre building east of the Eros Airport.
This was followed by the January 11 crash at Olympia, where a Cessna 210 crashed into a house.
The third accident happened on May 9, when another Cessna 210 crash-landed on the grounds of TransNamib's Gammams Training Centre near the Pionierspark Cemetery after experiencing engine problems after take-off from the Eros Airport.
Prior to yesterday's incident, the most recent crash happened two weeks ago, on Saturday, July 26 in the Skeleton Coast Park.
A Namibian pilot and two German tourists survived that accident, when the Cessna 206 they were travelling in flipped over onto its roof.
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