What caused the Moremi Air plane crash a year ago?
By Bright Kholi
Sunday October 14, marked exactly a year since a Moremi Air plane crashed in the Moremi Game Reserve just after take off from Xakanaxa airstrip, killing 8 passengers including the pilot. While it's been a year since the incident, the aviation sector, the tourism sector, families of the deceased and the general public are yet to know what really caused the accident as the report on the incident is still being finalised.
On October 14, 2011, the Cessna 208 registered A2 AKD took off from Maun airport to do its regular trips in and out of the Delta camps transporting tourists. At the controls of A2 AKD was Martin Gresswell, then Moremi Air's most experienced pilot and general manager for flight operations with a staggering 12 000 flying hours. At about 1.55pm it crashed just after take off from Xakanaxa airstrip, which is about 25 flying minutes from Maun, destined for Pom Pom. Aboard the aircraft were 12 passengers, of whom four survived while 7 tourists and Gresswell died.
From there on the investigations on to the cause were initiated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications and to date, it is yet to release the report. Many questions have been asked as to what could have gone wrong with the aircraft, more so that the pilot was one of the finest in the industry.
In response to questions from The Ngami Times this week, Aron Kitunga, the investigator in charge at the ministry, said “investigations are a process”, adding that they are currently at the report writing stage of the investigations.
“The draft final report has been completed and circulated to affected parties. Only one has not submitted representations, but we have started working on other representations which were submitted,” he said.
Of the affected parties - two are known to be Moremi Air Services in Maun and engine makers Pratt and Whitney, Canada - two have submitted their representations which are now being taken into consideration before submitting the final report. Questioned on the preliminary findings, Kitunga said the investigations revealed that the aircraft engine had failed during take-off. He could not go into detail as to what could have led to the engine to fail. A2 AKD was fitted with a powerful Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6A-114A turbo prop engine. There have been allegations that the engine could have been altered in a way which made it susceptible to failure but Kitunga said “we are not aware of such rumours, and in any case, the investigations are normally based on factual information.” On whether the final report will be made public, Kitunga said regulations require that the final report be submitted to the Minister of Transport and Communications who will then determine if the report or part of it is to be published.
Asked why it took so long for the investigations to be concluded, Kitunga said, “accident investigations are always complex and are required to determine not only the root cause of the accident, but also other systemic shortcomings that could be potential cause of accidents. Therefore, a thorough investigation is carried out before determination of the conclusions and any lessons that might be learnt from the accident. Normally this takes not less than one year and could go as far as two or three years for a large commercial aircraft.”
Moremi Air Services in Maun did not respond to a set of questions sent to them by The Ngami Times this week.
Note last line! Are we surprised?