C310 crash at Eros

[abc.fp]

A very lucky escape for pilot and four passengers at Eros this morning.

V5NPR ran off the end of RWY01 whilst attempting takeoff, and ended up on its roof. All escaped with minor injuries to one of the passengers.

[Romeo E.T.]

Vliegtuig val in Windhoek (http://www.republikein.com.na/politiek-en-nasionale/vliegtuig-val-in-windhoek.71019.php)

[126,7]

I've only once seen a twin go off the end of Rwy01 at Eros. That was before the runway was extended and the twin, in this case a Baron had lost an engine just short of rotation....didnt get far on the other one. Neither vertically or horizontally.
So what happened to NPR?

[abc.fp]

Apparently the lady pilot aborted an earlier take-off attempt and let the engineers have a look at the aircraft. They could not find anything wrong with the power and mixture etc. So she tried again.

According to the fireman who witnessed the whole thing, she got airborne around mid-runway and only lifted a few metres before putting it back on the runway. The space left was simply not enough to bring it to a stop. Shortly before the threshold she actually steered it off to the right to avoid running onto the road. A good call in my opinion.

It stayed pretty much on its wheels until it hit the fence, where it seems to have flipped over. It came to a stop about 5 meters behind the fence, on its roof.

If anyone could tell me how, i could post some close-up pics. :8

[Voel]

Another Cessna crashes at Eros Airport

DENVER ISAACS

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.

[Doodlebug]

Glad this bunch got out ok. They must be running out of aircraft in Namibia.

Incidentally, after expertly (anywhere else and it would have been a fireball) parking that Baron in the riverbed just beyond the road and getting all his pax out of the mangled heap, the esteemed .... was rumoured to have asked the lead pax 'So I guess you won't want to pay me for this trip, hey?' while lighting up a smoke. They don't make 'em like that anymore :E

[Doodlebug2]

This place starting to sound like the Congo...:}

[Muaskid]

And this comes hot on the heels of Sefofane's Cessna 206 V5-ORX overturning on landing at Khumib River on the Skeleton Coast on 26.7.08 - also fortunately without injury.

Incidentally does anyone know where this came from (Botswana perhaps ?) as I thought Sefofane were exclusively 210 in Namibia ?

[Propellerpilot]

No the Sefo 206 was not from Bots as far as I know - was a brand new import from the US.

Concernig Albatross Air, their aircraft IMHO are a bunch of scrap metal - old and tired airframes inherited from the former COMAV. The other 310 of theirs had a gear collaps at Eros a couple of months ago, whilst doing training.

If the lady pilot was R.R. she has been followed by a bad aviation record and luck in the past, but in this case I am glad GOD saved her and her passengers - sorry for the irony.

The question I ask myself: if my aircraft doesn't perform the first time, why will it perform better the second time, if nothing has or was changed ??? Why voluntarily try it again thinking it would be better the next time ?

Would be really interesting to know exactly why the aircraft did not perform, especially after having it rechecked by the mechanics. Was early morning so Density Alt was probably ok. Flying with 4 pax should also have been ok.

[rivercruise]

what happened to the V1 /decission speed?....past this speed you can't land back without a very good chance of running off the end of the rw
V1 speed is prior to Vr and the aircraft was airborne.
We must all try to learn from this accident and that the pilot must stick to the plan if you involve the V1 speed in you take off planning

If the pilot turned back prior to the first attempted take off due to a problem and the qualified engineer signed the aircraft out as servicable after the follow up inspection ,then the pilot was totaly within the law to attempt the next take off.

Lets not knock the pilot but learn something from it.

[Doodlebug]

Rivercruise

V1 in a Cessna 310?

Am I to understand that, having suffered an engine-failure in a light piston-twin on the runway, you would attempt to accelerate to a higher speed on the remaining engine, rotate and climb out?

Just asking.

[oompilot]

Shou shou shou.:ooh: Rivercruise you going to give pilots operating in Africa a bad name with comments like that. :\Go and read up a little on FAR part 23/25 aircraft.

[Propellerpilot]

There is no official V1 rivercruise (like the other collegues mentioned). However nothing stops you to make your own decision speed which would coincide with the published rotation speed in a light twin - if you are not at a speed above red line at a certain point of that runway (accelerate stop distance is what you would look up and refer to in the POH), you should abort. This is were a balanced field length would count towards the pilots favour (this is a weight factor obviously). In an unbalanced field, you will land in the sticks, there is no way around that if anything goes wrong. Eros however should be just long enough to accelerate and stop (in standard conditions) if it was considered and given some thought prior to pushing those levers to the wall.

[Tom_Kitty]

This time around a Westair 310, V5-WAG. Went out on a test flight flight after new radios where fitted and returned without the left hand main gear extending fully. A few scratches, some bend metal and a pilot that will probably get blamed ....:cool:

Regarding NPR, I remeber that piece of :mad: from the old COMAV days, just like the 310 that got written of in Luderitz (V5-LUC) a couple of years ago. I say good riddens :yuk: ... sorry about the pilot and passengers who got hurt.

[manfrmuncle]

Does anyone know where I can find the serial number for the Cessna 310 that went down at Eros in August?

You can reply to [email protected]

Thank you