Zs-gaa Missing Near Plett?
 

Anynyone know what happened to ZS-GAA (PC12) last night? ATC lost contact with them after they were supposed to fly into Plett yesterday. I believe search and rescue started looking for them. Weather was apparently really bad. RUMOUR (I hope not true) is that she went down.

69

Wreckage found. Searching for survivors. Doesn't sound good but hoping for the best.

Search for missing Plett plane continues
 

011-02-09 07:26

George - The search for a light aircraft that went missing over Plettenberg Bay would resume at first light, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Wednesday.

"No sign of a 'downed' aircraft was found on the surrounding coast and dense vegetation hampered the search and rescue effort...at 01:55 the search was suspended until first light," NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said.

He said an alert had been issued to all vessels at sea to be on the lookout for the plane.

The aircraft had been travelling from Queenstown to Plettenberg Bay and disappeared while trying to land near the Robberg Nature Reserve in heavy fog on Tuesday.

The single-engine aircraft was carrying two crew and seven employees of Italtile Ltd, the company's spokesperson Del-Maree English said.

"An announcement will be made as soon as further information becomes available," English said.


Source:Search for missing Plett plane continues: News24: South Africa: News

Plane wreckage found
 

9 fatal confirmed.

Rumor has it that an unpublished, pilot-built GNSS approach was being used by pilots there recently. Hope this was not the case in this case.

Johannesburg - The chief executive officer of tile company Italtile, Gianpaolo Ravazzotti, was one of nine people killed in a plane crash over Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route on Tuesday, the company said.

"Gianpaolo Ravazzotti and his colleagues tragically passed away in an aeroplane accident on Tuesday, 08 February 2011," the company's board said in a statement released on Wednesday morning.

"The wreckage of the aircraft has been located in the Robberg area and the bodies of all of the passengers have been found.

"A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash."

Victims

The dead include Ravazzotti and eight of his colleagues and business partners - Gia Celori of Italtile Ltd, Marilize Compion of Italtile Ltd, Sava Di Bella of Prima Bella Bathroom Accessories, Simon Hirschberg of the company Grainwave Pty Ltd, Jody Jansen van Rensburg of CTM Alberton, Aletsia Krause of Italtile Ltd, Bronwyn Parsons the pilot for Italtile Ltd and co-pilot Alison van Staden.

"On behalf of the board, I express my heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the chairman of the group, Mr Gianni Ravazzotti, his wife Annabel and their daughters and Gianpaolo's wife, Vanessa and their children, as well as the families of all of the deceased," Italtile chief financial officer Peter Swatton said.

"The group will ensure that every effort is made to provide the counselling and support required by those affected by this tragedy."

The board said it would announce its succession plans "in due course".

Wreckage

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon told Sapa the aircraft's wreckage was found just off-shore of the Robberg Nature Reserve at 06:06 on Wednesday.

The aircraft had been travelling from Queenstown to Plettenberg Bay on Tuesday.

It disappeared at 16:00 on Tuesday while trying to land near the Robberg Nature Reserve in heavy fog.

The plane was believed to be a single-engine Pilatus PC-12.

Truly sad. My heart goes out to their families and friends.

ps.Kev, think you could wait a bit with the hearsay?

Fly safe

SS

Condolences to all. Sadly some of the deceased are family members of a friend.

Very sad news indeed, I flew with captain in Namibia, a very experienced and disciplined pilot. It really makes me wonder what caused such an advanced plane to go down. My condolences to their families...

Very sad, my condolences to all concerned.

My initial reaction was to blame GetThereItis but the official enquiry could well find other contributing factors or reasons why they could not have diverted to Cape Town.

My second reaction was to remember all of the times that I pushed my own luck trying to find a hole and how easy it is to get sucked into bad decisions when the weather turns nasty.

There but for the grace........................

Nicely put Oh Ancient Greek. It's outlooks like these that lead to that respectable tally of 66. Its unlike the rather judgmental outlooks of some from 'sister' sites which clearly contain exceptionally skilled individuals with gifted aviation knowledge and superior piloting skills.

The wonderful SA climate means that diversions are rare compared to places like the UK where being able to land at your intended destination can never be guaranteed. This means that bad weather skills are seldom as good as they should be.

The lesson is clear - dont even think about it, DIVERT. An hour in a taxi or a night in an hotel is inconvenient but that is a small price to pay for safety.

Plett crash - painstaking recovery
 

2011-02-09 22:35
Johannesburg - The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has sent investigators to look into the cause of an aircraft accident near Plettenberg Bay on Tuesday in which nine people died.

The CAA said in a statement on Wednesday that the aircraft, a Pilatus PC12 with two crew members and seven passengers on board, took off from Queenstown Aerodrome at 15:00 on Tuesday and was to have landed at Plettenberg Bay Aerodrome just after 16:00.

"Information at this stage indicates that, shortly after being handed over to the Cape Town Radar Control, and at approximately 5km away from Plettenberg Bay Aerodrome, the aircraft went off radar," the CAA said.

A search and rescue operation was launched soon after it became known that the aircraft had not reached its destination.

One of those killed in the accident was Italtile CEO Gianpaolo Ravazzotti.

Also killed were pilot Bronwyn Parsons, co-pilot Alison van Staden and passengers Gia Celori of Italtile, Marilize Compion of Italtile, Sava Di Bella of Prima Bella Bathroom Accessories, Simon Hirschberg of Grainwave, Jody Jansen van Rensburg of CTM Alberton, Aletsia Krause of Italtile.

Reports incorrect

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said police divers had recovered some bodies.

"But Forensic Pathology Services and the SA Police Service will not confirm the number of bodies recovered as this has not been conclusively determined," the NSRI said in a statement.

Earlier reports that eight bodies had been retrieved by Wednesday afternoon were incorrect, it said.

Debris from the aircraft spanned five nautical miles out to sea and along the shore.

The highest concentration of debris was about half a nautical mile in the vicinity off-shore of the Robberg Nature Reserve, near Plettenberg Bay.

The NSRI in Plettenberg Bay and NSRI Knysna deployed three sea rescue craft for the search.

Search aircraft could not be deployed because of dense fog on Wednesday morning.

Source- SAPA :Plett crash - painstaking recovery: News24: South Africa: News
Condolences to all families.

Can't comment on what or why the aircraft was flying, but it sure as heck wasn't flying the FAPG Cloud Break.

It was very indicative of an approach over the sea to get through or under cloud.

500' over the ocean when the OCH is what, 855'?

Sounds like a serious case of "getthereitis".

There are things called "minimums" for a reason.

27F

Ok, by now we should all know that it's very easy to sound like a sanctimonious dick when making comments. There are plenty of Captain Hindsights available for free here. If they screwed up, they screwed up, and if you know that FOR A FACT then feel free to say so - if you're just making some ill-informed guess then please just wind it in a little until you actually have something useful to say - the fact that everybody died will be lesson enough once the facts get out.

If you saw the sort of weather prevailing during Dec holidays, and the amount of aircraft that were landing at Plett, it is very clear that guys are using GPS to land at Plett....or descending below the fog over the water.

As for the so called expert on 702 yesterday, I would suggest sticking to speaking about that which is commensurate to your experience levels. You make a total clown of yourself.

Is there an official CAA sanctioned GPS letdown procedure at Plett these days? There certainly wasn't (or I wasn't aware of one) when I ducked in there last year en route to Shamwari.

Isn't the lack of a published IFR procedure one of the reasons for the airport's relative commercial neglect over the last few years?

One feels for all those who have been effected by this tragedy. The death of some many connected to one company is doubly tragic and is a lesson to those who fly regularly to review their business continuity plans and revise their risk assessments accordingly.

The only known FACTS are these. The aircraft has crashed and 9 people have tragically lost their lives. Nine families have had their lives torn apart for ever more and all you lot can do is pontificate about a subject you know nothing about. How disgusting.

You've already ruled out any other probable cause (mechanical failure etc) and have found the deceased guilty has charged.

If you've got nothing useful to say, then I suggest you STFU and save your sanctimonious opinions for another day. Let the CAA do their investigation first.

RIP

The SA CAA publishes a break cloud procedure for RWY30 @ Plettenberg Bay. The OCH is 844ft with an initial approach altitude of 6,300ft or higher. Field elevation is 465ft. The point is made on the plate that the procedure is entirely at the discretion of the PIC.