PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Kiwi pilot injured in plane crash in Botswana
Old 26th Nov 2008, 10:27
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206DOG
 
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This accident is not an issue of the pilot being forced to fly in bad weather.
As anyone that has flown in the Delta before knows, This time of year is when thunderstorms are around, This doesn't mean that all charter companies here close their door for the next 6 months!
Most company policy in Maun is that if there are CB's encountered at the airstrip you are supposed to land, then divert somewhere else to wait it out. This is exactly what the pilot of DOG was doing when he went down, unfortunately he ran into an embedded micro-burst as he was flying PAST Ntswi to divert elsewhere.
The pilot did a magnificent job in the circumstances to get the plane on the ground and everyone walked away from the scene, which might not have been the case with a less experienced pilot.
As someone who has been into that airstrip many hundreds of times over the last few years, (I flew in about an hour after the crash as well, conditions were calm and clear by then) I can very well understand the causes of this accident and don't think many pilots could have done any more than that pilot did on the day.
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