Fifi Rhodes
8 September 2008
Windhoek — A woman had to dive for her life to escape the left wing of a light aircraft that cut through the steel pins at the top of a brick wall at her Hochland Park home yesterday morning.
A Cessna 210 aircraft crashed just after take-off from Eros Airport yesterday morning. Five people were on board.
The woman, only named as Marcelle, said she had just finished watering plants at the back of her house when a strange sound in the street caught her attention.
"I first thought it was the neighbour opposite my house opening her iron gate. When I came to my front gate I heard a loud noise and then I saw the plane approaching metres away from me. The wing ripped through the steel barbed pins of my outside fence wall. I threw myself to the ground, escaping injury or possible death in a flash. I thank God for saving me," she said, sipping a cup of coffee as she related her early morning ordeal to New Era.
The single-engine plane, carrying one crew member and four Swiss passengers, went down in Pappegaaien Road as it tried to land on an open street in Hochland Park. Fragments of the plane and tree branches were scattered over 50 metres as it careered down the road before it crashed into another brick wall. As the plane hit the first wall, it lost balance, with the wing breaking loose.
At the second house, the wing slammed into the wall, leaving a big hole in the wall. The plane skidded down the street where it crashed into another wall and came to a halt.
One person, a Swiss tourist, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at a local hospital died from injuries sustained in the crash yesterday afternoon.
Three others sustained minor injuries while another person escaped unhurt, as the Cessna 210 slammed into a brick wall after a brave execution of an emergency landing metres away from a packed Sunday service of the Dutch Reformed Church.
The plane, operated by Wings Over Africa Charters started its journey at Eros Airport around 08h15, developing engine problems after take-off. Midway, the pilot apparently tried to avert crashing into houses, making a forced landing on the empty street.
A resident and eye witness Rosemary Falk of Hochland Park, told New Era that she saw the whole incident from the time the plane took off from the airport.
"I saw it climbing but at the same time, it also lost height. I heard a sound like an explosion and I realised it was going to crash. The pilot tried to make a left turn above Game Shopping Centre and make an emergency landing on Hochland Road, but I think it was too fast and he chose the open street in Hochland Park.
Early this year, six people were burnt to death when a small plane they were flying in crashed into a house in Windhoek's Olympia suburb. In May, a Cessna 210 light aircraft rammed into an electric fence above the TransNamib Gammams Training Centre opposite the Pionierspark cemetery after taking off. All the five people on board - an American couple, a French couple and the pilot - were rushed to hospital.
About a month later another six people sustained minor injuries after a Cessna 210 aircraft they were travelling in crashed a kilometre from Swakopmund airport.
The ministry would not give much information on the crash, but said the Directorate of Aircraft Investigation is currently investigating the accident.
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