News article in the New Era
The aviation industry is awash with speculation that young inexperienced South African trained pilots may be using Namibia as a training ground to boost their flying hours.
Such speculation had reached the ministry, and it had earlier responded that such reports would be investigated as such actions can easily tarnish the image of the country.
Nengola said the expected report, and its recommendations, “would be based on hard facts and not rumours”.
Nengola further said a report on the air crash that happened in Olympia in January this year is in the final stage, while reports on the subsequent air crashes that happened in Swakopmund and near TransNamib training centre in Windhoek are entering the final stage.
Statistics from the Directorate of Civil Aviation indicate a steady increase of 14 percent in aircraft incidents occurrences since 2005, from 78 to 89 in 2007.
Incident occurrence refers to all air incidences including non-crashes, distress calls, and any incidence during mid-air, take-off and landing. In total, 250 cases were reported in the last three years, with the primary leading factor being human error.
Human errors include mismanagement of fuel, not compensating for density altitude, lack of proper training, exceeding the performance limitations of the aircraft, overloading the aircraft, unapproved modification and flying in adverse weather conditions.