6 die in Germiston air crash
 

21/10/2008 09:20 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Six people were killed when an aircraft crashed in Germiston shortly after taking off from the Rand Airport east of Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The Saratoga aircraft took off at 08:10 and about 2km into their journey to Ficksburg in the eastern Free State the pilot called in to request an emergency landing, said airport manager Anton Kruger.

However, the aircraft broke up and burst into flames as it came down behind the Germiston Raceway.

Six people were registered on the flight manifest.

Civil Aviation Authorities were on their way to the scene of the crash.

SAPA
Source:- 6 die in Germiston air crash: South Africa: News: News24

anyone got a reg of the plane? I have met some Saratoga owners...:(

Very sad news....

Involved aircraft is Piper PA-32R-300 "Lance" ZS-JZF (c/n 32R-7780024)

Best regards,

Robert

Rand must have the worst track record with regards
to light a/c crashing in its proximity in JNB and surrounding areas :\
Maybe the CAA should do some more audits at the
AMO's, flight schools etc. Something is clearly wrong there.

RIP.

pfd,

I think it has more to do with the location.

Ryan
 

6 people in a Saratoga (Especially an old one like that) at Rands elevation???? RIP

6 Die in Rand Crash???
 

The time has come for the CAA to stop writing law books that doesnt make sense to anyone and start enforcing their presence at airports that could have avoided this yet another tragic accident.

I support your call. 5400ft, single engine, allegedly fuel for 5 hrs and 1/5 - do the maths.

RIP:{

Do the Maths
 

Interesting comment re CAA etc - at the risk of offering an uninformed opinion - I am not a pilot, just an enthusiastic spotter/photographer - and assuming no catastropic reason for the incident (poss of power etc), would not the pilot have "done the maths" and not contemplated such a flight in the first place ? In other words, hot and high, six up with 5hrs of fuel may be asking to much from the kite - What would CAA do differently in your opinion ? Also, I agree with other comments Rand does seem to have more than an "acceptable" (not that any incident should be "acceptable") series of shunts/incidents - would be an interesting stat to see what percentage is "Rand's share". Tragic. I'm willing to bet Deloitte relook their travel policy - heavy price to pay, unfortunatly. :sad:

6 Die in Germiston air crash
 

The latest i have heard is that there is a possibility the plane was close to or over weight. it had a full load of fuel and a witness who saw the plane takeoff said it seemed to "battle" to get airborn. hope CAA will get to the bottem of this soon

I was surprised to find that one or two senior instructors/DE's are passing on bad habits to fresh com/PPL pilots. Now, I am not by any means knocking instructors/DE's in general as they are usualy on the ball and do an outstanding job, however, there is one or two instructors/DE's teaching that if the aircraft doesn't sit on it's tail with the nose in the air, then it is with in mass and balance limits, trim limits. This may lead to new pilots skipping the mass and balance, load and trim sheet for the type aircraft being flown. Instructors/DE's play a vital role in teaching the correct way. Please, as I said this is not an attack on DE's by any means, just a casual observation. There is sadly no substitute for the load sheet, be it a heavy jet or a light aircraft.

..
 

I heard that eye witnesses said they thought the aircraft was doing an acrobatic act

Most probably it was spinning into the ground due to being overweight and stalling!

Aircraft in question was a Lance. What I would like clarity on though is the fact that this particular aircraft had a twin turbo set-up installed. Is this an approved mod? Anybody know? I saw the wreckage on a trailer at Wonderboom in fron of Proavs hangar on Wednesday last week. Only part of the aircraft left over is the engine and it had two turbo's fitted.

Affirm Jamex, it was equipped with the twin turbo setup. Flew it about 3-4 years ago, and it pulled like a freight train. IMHO turbo failure could have caused this unfortunate incident.

Anyone know what the weather was on the date in question? I was wondering what the Density Altitude would have been, and whether a Lance with a twin turbo setup would have been able to take off regardless in the circumstances (i.e. 6 pax and 5hrs+ fuel onboard seems to me a tad heavy). Any idea of the power output in such a setup?

300hp,high Altitude,full Load
 

From what i understand it has a 300HP engine, twin turbo or not, if it was fully loaded at rands altitude it would have had trouble...

Hmm, yes I thought a fully loaded light aircraft would struggle to get airborne at Rand. Just thought that maybe the PIC was under the impression that the aeroplane would be able to do it, and therefore did not worry about having such a full load. What a pity.

Same thought actuallly crossed my mind when hearing about this. I remember giving myself a fright many many years ago departing Rand for Port Elizabeth in a light twin with full fuel - and I was alone with no baggage!!! From that day onwards when departing out of Rand, I did my homework VERY carefully! It goes without saying that I never tried my luck with full fuel and full pax in the same aicraft! RIP.

And 4 colleagues of mine were amongst the passengers

RIP