Not sure about nearly having a wheels up landing? Thats something that is pretty hard to confirm in a C210 other than by the own admission of the pilot.
I'm sick of people judging the way that they think we fly in Maun. The maintenance is pretty top notch here.
When you consider the amount of caravan movements in maun every day, throughout the 6 operators that have them in their fleet, its been a good run.
It is just sad that we have had 2 incidents in 18 months, whereas before that it has been a pretty clean record.
The training is good. You have a senior pilot sitting beside you for 50 to 100 hours (depending on company). Thats as much training needed to get a PPL.
As for the dirt getting into the engine, its actually pretty hard. The only way stuff gets sucked into the engine is either sustained reverse thrust on a dusty runway or when you put it into feather over a dusty spot.
Usually in dusty areas it is best to leave it out of feather so all the crap gets blown backwards rather than upwards.
Most of the strips now however have concrete pads to park over, combine that with parking into wind usually keeps dust out of the engines.
Unless you get a knobhead who pulls in front and sandblasts the hell out of you with his plane...
I've been looking into the reasons as to why this engine could go pop. I stress that this is my opinion and my opinion alone, its not that of any of the companies in Maun, let alone Moremi Air, nor the people investigating or any of the maintenance facilities in town.
With what I am aware both the Mack Air incident in 2009, and the Moremi Air one, they haven't found a cause to what stopped the engine.
I've been playing around with a few theories myself.
My first was perhaps a stuck bleed valve as it is kinda common, but that wouldn't be consistant with the (Not confirmed, just through the rumour tree) bang that was heard. If it was a bleed valve, it would cause Compressor stall/surge. None of which would just be a single bang, but rather a series of bangs.
It also leaves tell tale signs through the engine of the event occuring.
Something I have begun to settle on, and its something that is very hard to confirm, is the use of the inertial seperator. Some of the companies here put the seperator back into normal after becoming airborne, while others put it away once through 40kts on the ground roll.
Perhaps in certain conditions where the temp, density, airspeed and angle of airflow entering the engine is just right, when the seperator is put back to normal after becoming airborne, it is enough to cause a pressure shockwave and to cause a flameout.
It would explain why no trace is found in the engine....
Putting the seperator back to bypass in climb speed + high power settings requires quiet a big push. Surely as the seperator door slams shut, it must do something.
I realise that they are designed to be used in flight, but not usually under those conditions.
Of course it could be as simple as a turbine or compressor blade letting go, but that sort of thing will come out in due time and is easily found.