A privately owned light aircraft crashed at the Okahao airfield in the Omusati region on Sunday afternoon, leaving one passenger seriously injured and the pilot with minor injuries.

This was announced by Omusati police commander commissioner Ismael Basson on Sunday afternoon.

Basson said the two-seater V5-UTD aircraft went down at around 12h40 while conducting a runway inspection flight.

It departed from Andimba Toivo ya Toivo Airport at Ondangwa en route to the Okahao and Outapi airfields.

The aircraft was reportedly flying at a low level for inspection purposes when a technical defect occurred, causing it to crash in the Okahao airfield area.

Basson said the pilot, Andrias Voigt (63), a German national with Namibian permanent residence, sustained minor injuries.

Voigt is also an orthopaedic surgeon at Oshakati.

His wife, Andria Nicollette (62), who was a passenger on the aircraft, sustained serious injuries and was transported to Oshakati Intermediate Hospital, where she is reported to be in a stable condition.

The police confirmed that the aircraft is privately owned and its wreckage remains at the scene.

Basson said members of the Okahao police are guarding the site, pending investigations by the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority's Directorate of Air Accident Investigations, which has been informed of the incident.