Face of Africa model in plane crash scare
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Face of Africa model in plane crash scare
Written by By Toivo Ndjebela
Thursday, 02 October 2008
AVIATION authorities are probing Face of Africa 2008 finalist and trainee pilot, Maria Hiwilepo, after losing her bearings mid-flight and initiating a rescue mission which ended in her being escorted to land with just 12 minutes of fuel remaining.
No one was injured as a result of the drama that took place last week Wednesday, when Hiwilepo and an unidentified co-pilot became confused as to the whereabouts of Windhoek’s Eros Airport, which resulted in an emergency intervention by aviation authorities to locate the lost beauty queen and her colleague.
Director of Aircraft Accidents Investigation, Erickson Nengola confirmed to Informanté that his department had launched an investigation into the matter. “It’s true that the incident occurred,” he said.
“We are now investigating whether the cause was due to a human factor, the style of their school’s management, quality of classes offered or a misunderstanding between the two co-pilots,” Nengola said.
Hiwilepo, a multiple Miss Namibia competitor and former Miss Radio Energy, was en route from Ondangwa to Windhoek’s Eros Airport as part of her flying lessons.
Sources say that on her way back to the capital, Hiwilepo made a stopover in Tsumeb where she spent several hours before continuing her journey to Windhoek later in the evening.
On their way back, Hiwilepo, who is not accustomed to flying solo, allegedly lost sight of the route to Windhoek, instead flying her plane in the direction of Gobabis. Sources attributed the mishap to an alleged lack of geographical savvy, required to navigate the plane to her intended destination.
After hours awaiting Hiwilepo’s arrival, Windhoek based aviation authorities, particularly her instructors at the Namibia Aviation Training Academy (NATA), grew increasingly concerned about Hiwilepo and her co-pilot’s delay. Sources say signals were not lost, but that several attempts to direct Hiwilepo to Windhoek were unsuccessful as the model continued to fly in an easterly direction. In their desperate attempt to rescue the trainee pilots, the aviation personnel instructed ambulance crew to turn on their emergency lights to help the pair determine the direction of their destination.
Their initial attempts proved unsuccessful and an immediate decision was taken to send another plane in to direct the trainee pilots to the airport via a two-way, sources in the Ministry of Works said.
Lady luck seemed to be on the trainees’ side however, as they were left with only 12 minutes of fuel by the time they touched down in Windhoek, sources said.
Sources said that had the plane run out of fuel, it would probably have joined the list of nine other aircrafts that have crashed in Namibia over the past nine months, further faltering the country’s aviation safety record.
Hiwilepo’s mid-flight mishap contradicts claims made by the beauty queen last week that she is a ‘professional pilot’. Aviation experts say the incident serves a blow to the former Polytechnic of Namibia, IT student’s ambitions to acquire a commercial pilot licence.
Hiwilepo currently holds a basic Personal Private Licence (PPL).
Contacted for comment, Hiwilepo tried to quash allegations that she was one of the pilots. “Please don’t put my name in the newspaper. It was a mistake.” Asked whether by ‘mistake’ she was referring to the incident or the identification of the pilots, she answered “the latter”, before dropping the call.
Thursday, 02 October 2008
AVIATION authorities are probing Face of Africa 2008 finalist and trainee pilot, Maria Hiwilepo, after losing her bearings mid-flight and initiating a rescue mission which ended in her being escorted to land with just 12 minutes of fuel remaining.
No one was injured as a result of the drama that took place last week Wednesday, when Hiwilepo and an unidentified co-pilot became confused as to the whereabouts of Windhoek’s Eros Airport, which resulted in an emergency intervention by aviation authorities to locate the lost beauty queen and her colleague.
Director of Aircraft Accidents Investigation, Erickson Nengola confirmed to Informanté that his department had launched an investigation into the matter. “It’s true that the incident occurred,” he said.
“We are now investigating whether the cause was due to a human factor, the style of their school’s management, quality of classes offered or a misunderstanding between the two co-pilots,” Nengola said.
Hiwilepo, a multiple Miss Namibia competitor and former Miss Radio Energy, was en route from Ondangwa to Windhoek’s Eros Airport as part of her flying lessons.
Sources say that on her way back to the capital, Hiwilepo made a stopover in Tsumeb where she spent several hours before continuing her journey to Windhoek later in the evening.
On their way back, Hiwilepo, who is not accustomed to flying solo, allegedly lost sight of the route to Windhoek, instead flying her plane in the direction of Gobabis. Sources attributed the mishap to an alleged lack of geographical savvy, required to navigate the plane to her intended destination.
After hours awaiting Hiwilepo’s arrival, Windhoek based aviation authorities, particularly her instructors at the Namibia Aviation Training Academy (NATA), grew increasingly concerned about Hiwilepo and her co-pilot’s delay. Sources say signals were not lost, but that several attempts to direct Hiwilepo to Windhoek were unsuccessful as the model continued to fly in an easterly direction. In their desperate attempt to rescue the trainee pilots, the aviation personnel instructed ambulance crew to turn on their emergency lights to help the pair determine the direction of their destination.
Their initial attempts proved unsuccessful and an immediate decision was taken to send another plane in to direct the trainee pilots to the airport via a two-way, sources in the Ministry of Works said.
Lady luck seemed to be on the trainees’ side however, as they were left with only 12 minutes of fuel by the time they touched down in Windhoek, sources said.
Sources said that had the plane run out of fuel, it would probably have joined the list of nine other aircrafts that have crashed in Namibia over the past nine months, further faltering the country’s aviation safety record.
Hiwilepo’s mid-flight mishap contradicts claims made by the beauty queen last week that she is a ‘professional pilot’. Aviation experts say the incident serves a blow to the former Polytechnic of Namibia, IT student’s ambitions to acquire a commercial pilot licence.
Hiwilepo currently holds a basic Personal Private Licence (PPL).
Contacted for comment, Hiwilepo tried to quash allegations that she was one of the pilots. “Please don’t put my name in the newspaper. It was a mistake.” Asked whether by ‘mistake’ she was referring to the incident or the identification of the pilots, she answered “the latter”, before dropping the call.
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Pay her money back and let her continue with the modelling....or rather let her stay away from that as well since she might just loose her direction on the runway if there is loadshedding.
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Even if training and flying by dead reconing and visual navigation, I ask myself: did the aircraft have GPS on board and if so, why was it not used ? If you don't have experience and don't know the country, flying in Nam without a GPS in your flightbag (if the aircraft does not have one installed) as backup, is crazy. This is a question that NATA should answer.
The behavoir of Miss Hiwilepo seems defensive, embarressed and a bit immature. There would be something like a flight autherization sheet at NATA on who was piloting that aircraft and I am sure that flightplans stating the PIC must have been filed as they were flying back to a controlled airport. It is not a sin for a novice pilot to say: I got lost. I think all of us have been in that situation before, however we had tools, skills on how to work ourselves back in the right direction to unmissable landmarks that would given us an instant awareness of where we were. Flying VFR you would only need a whisky compass to do this. If east of track, fly southwesterly until you hit the B1 and bingo... for example. Flying easterly on that trip is looking for trouble. Like skillie says - if someone can't grasp that, then they should do themselves a favour: it is no sin to admit aviation is not for them.
The behavoir of Miss Hiwilepo seems defensive, embarressed and a bit immature. There would be something like a flight autherization sheet at NATA on who was piloting that aircraft and I am sure that flightplans stating the PIC must have been filed as they were flying back to a controlled airport. It is not a sin for a novice pilot to say: I got lost. I think all of us have been in that situation before, however we had tools, skills on how to work ourselves back in the right direction to unmissable landmarks that would given us an instant awareness of where we were. Flying VFR you would only need a whisky compass to do this. If east of track, fly southwesterly until you hit the B1 and bingo... for example. Flying easterly on that trip is looking for trouble. Like skillie says - if someone can't grasp that, then they should do themselves a favour: it is no sin to admit aviation is not for them.
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If she made a mistake, she should admit to it and learn from it; we've all made mistakes... she won't be the first and definately not the last! As usual, just because she's a beauty queen, it'll definately make the headlines and be blown out of proportion!! 
and both had a different opinion on navigation
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