Sunday Tribune wrote:
Pilot saves 16 in crash landing
June 12, 2005
By Fred Kockott
Expert flying saved the lives of 16 passengers and crew on an SA Airlink flight which made an emergency landing - with no nose wheel - at Durban International Airport yesterday as firefighters and rescue personnel sped along the runway.
"It was awesome flying. The pilot only dropped the nose of the plane on to the runway as it came to a stop," said advanced life support medic Suren Deonarain.
"Extra fuel had to be dumped over the sea, and passengers all had to move to the rear seats before he could attempt the landing," added Netcare's South Coast operations manager Chris Botha.
Botha said when the SA Airlink plane had come in to land, fire tenders, accompanied by a paramedic unit and a doctor, had sped along the runway parallel to the craft, in case it burst into flames from sparks caused by the plane's nose hitting the runway.
"The whole airport disaster plan had kicked in," said Botha. "It ran like clockwork, even better than the drills we often do."
As firefighters hosed down the 18-seater Jetstream, severely shocked passengers disembarked, hugging each other - one of them even kissing the ground in gratitude.
"I'm not deeply religious," advocate Conrad Rheeder later said at Kingsway Hospital, after an hour's trauma debriefing. "But up there during the flight, one became rather spiritual. Below us was this beautiful view of the sea. You kept wondering whether this was the last time you were going to see it."
Rheeder and 12 other passengers had embarked on the flight in Johannesburg at 11.30am and were expected to touch down in Margate at 12.30pm.
But on attempting to land in Margate, pilot Capt Trevor Quantrill discovered that the plane's nose wheel undercarriage had failed to deploy.
Margate's runway was too short to attempt an emergency landing, and as the plane was still loaded with fuel, Quantrill diverted to Durban where the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) activated a disaster plan. Within an hour, dozens of emergency vehicles lined the runway. Inside the airport all staff assisted in dealing with the operational shutdown.
The viewing deck was cleared of people, except for Mike Wilkinson, whose wife Jenny was on board. Wilkinson and his 4-year-old son, Thomas, had earlier watched the plane abort its attempted landing in Margate, then circle around a few times, before flying to Durban.
While passengers on the plane braced themselves in the plane's rear seats for the emergency landing, Wilkinson, standing by his son, uttered silent prayers.
On board the plane, Quantrill, assisted by two crew members, had already talked through the procedure.
Prayers
"The air hostess was really wonderful. You could see she was deeply affected, but she retained her composure," said Rheeder.
"The pilot said that the landing would feel normal, but that the engines would be cut to reduce the risk of fire. He said the nose would be kept up for as long as possible, but that when it did hit the ground, we must expect a huge jolt and awful lot of noise," added Rheeder.
"But the noise never came. As the plane stopped, we all started clapping, then hugging each other."
Crew and passengers were assessed for shock and taken to Kingsway Hospital for trauma counselling. "They were all really badly, badly, shaken, especially the 4 or 5-year-old boy," said Deonarain.
"The pilot too. He had held so many people's lives in his hands. After he touched down, I think the pressure and shock of it all hit him hard . . . But this one lady, as she got off, she said, 'That was a really cool experience'," added Botha.
Bloody good job...!!
R