I wasn't sure whether I should have posted this under "KQ Abinitio" or "Kenya Airways expansion plans" or even "Expat recruitment" threads but we're having a smashing time in this neck of the woods at the moment.
Case No1. A 748 is heading into a bush airstrip in Sudan with approximately 5 tons of cargo on board. He is warned - repeatedly - by another operator in the area that the airstrip is tight, even for a Caravan, and is only 600m long with tall trees around it. He opts to go anyway and attempts a landing. No-one badly injured but the plane is a possible write-off.
Case No2. A low-time PPL pilot doing a passenger charter from Wilson to the Mara (1hour flight time) got lost and after over 2 hours, saw the Orly airstrip 10 minutes from Wilson and chose to land. High speed for a C172 and no flaps meant he ballooned along the runway and didn't touch down until 3/4 along the runway so ended up overunning and turning the a/c upside down.
Pilot then legged it out of the aircraft and ran away, leaving his two passengers inside upside down with fuel dripping out the wings. Fortunately, there was no fire and an experienced pilot who witnessed the accident, helped the startled but uninjured pax out and then went looking for the pilot who seemed not to know where he was. (For reference, Wilson is almost visible from Orly for those not familiar with this area).
We're still not learning from past mistakes sadly. Its a kind of deja vu, Ground Hog Day scenario. I'm no expert but maybe we need to look at the root cause of these kind of accidents, and go back to getting the basics sorted out before we try to run too fast???
