Let 410 crash in Maasai Mara, Kenya
 

A plane owned by Mombasa Air Safari has just crashed in the Maasai Mara possibly killing both pilots. It is likely one of their Let-410's as that is what they usually use on the Mombasa-Mara routing. Follow @Currie_Powder onTwitter for current details. Crash location --> Ngerende Airport @ OurAirports

Sad news,understand both pilots have died and 5 others getting treated by Nairobi flying doctors.Injured could be airstrip employees.

Current reports indicate a passenger died as well:

ASN Aircraft accident Let L-410UVP-E9 5Y-UVP ? Ngerende Airstrip, Masai Mara Game Reserve
and
Three dead in Mara plane crash- News|nation.co.ke

plane down in Masia Mara
 

BBC News - Masai Mara: Four killed in plane crash

A plane carrying mostly tourists has crashed in Kenya's Masai Mara national park, Kenyan aviation officials say. The aircraft was reportedly carrying between 12 and 14 people.


Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper said three people - two pilots and a female passenger - had been killed.



Small propeller planes are often used to transport tourists to the Masai Mara, one of Africa's most popular attractions.



There has so far been no official confirmation of fatalities.
The plane was a 5YUV7 light aircraft, owned by Mombasa air, and was preparing to land at the Ngerede Airstrip near the Mara Safari Club, according to the Daily Nation. A team from the Flying Doctors Service had been sent to the site, the AFP news agency said.

update on L410 crash
 

it's actually 4 confirmed who didn't make it :(

Four dead in Mara plane crash- News|nation.co.ke

Pole sana to all involved .
First fatal I have heard about for Mombasa Air Services .
Bad weather ? Bird strike ? Seems strange to happen close to or on the strip it was landing at .

See also here JACDEC - Current News

From the Standard article Standard Digital News : Kenya : Two pilots, two tourists die in Mara plane crash

:cool:

Terrible accident, hopefully both the survivors and the company will recover quickly. Good bunch of guys by the way, had the privilege of renewing my kenyan IR through them a few times.

Hmmm - it is easy to understand what might well have happened.
VFR approack into a short strip, eyes out of the window concentrating on ground speed to hit the threshold, tail wind = stall.

Easy trap to fall into, what information were they given, if any, about wind speed and direction ?.

Probably not a good idea to theorise too much until more information is available, a sad outcome for all concerned.

Does the 410 carry voice and data recorders ?

Dunno...most of the Lets i've flown had a good 5-8kts diff between the hooter and the real stall. Should give enough time to recover imho. But did the accident happened on landing or TO?
Anyhow, the L410 is over 5700kgs so it should have have both CVR and FDR although one of the two could be inop for a few days provided the other one is working according to the MEL.
Cheers

From the information so far available (yea right) they came down short of the runway on approach and there are reports of "wrong wind direction".

Obvious candidates are either a stall or a strong downdraft.

Suspected EFATO.
 

This accident happened after take off, not on approach to land. Eye witness accounts point to the left engine failing thereafter how the pilot handled it, only the bur/ Fdr and or VCR will reveal.

Confirmation on cause?
 

Gang, I'm new here in the forum, but I am running ops in Central Africa using a Let-410. Weight has always been an issue and my pilot is telling me the Kenya crash was due to the Aircraft was overweight. By the above comments, it looks more like "Wind" or "Engine Failure". does anyone have an absolute cause. Naturally my sincere regards to the casualties and their families. It's always a terrible loss.

AFAIK there has been no clear cause published and I would not expect a proper investigation report to be published in less than a year.

If we assume that there was an engine failure after takeoff this should not have caused a crash in a twin engined aircraft.

This leads to two possibilities ( there are other less likely causes ) :-

1) The pilots failed to take the correct engine failure actions.

or 2) The aircraft took off below Vmc (minimum single engine control speed).
There are several reasons why Vmc might not have been achieved.
a) Airstrip too short for safe operation of the aircraft type.
b) Overweight.
c) Engines not delivering full power.d) Wet or muddy grass or dirt airstrip.
e) Brakes not properly released.
f) Failure to select full power.
g) (other less likely.....)

I would normally expect the cause of failure to acheive Vmc to be a combination of several of the above. For example the strip length being marginal for the aircraft type and the aircraft being overloaded.

I suggest that you ask your pilot to explain his thoughts and that you learn more about safe operating best practice and the ways that many african operators push their luck until the inevitable eventually bites.

Grrrrr - what is wrong with PPRune this morning running my carefully formatted replies into an unbroken mess.

Engine Failure on the Let..
 

Hey Ancient Geek,

There is another consideration worth noting that would lead to a major increase in VMC in an engine failure on takeoff scenario and that is if the Failed Engine did NOT Auto-Feather as its ment to. From this post my understanding is the Left Engine( the critical engine on the Let410) failed shortly after take off. If this was the case then the combination of Critical Engine and No Auto-Feather at low altitude would quite easily lead to this accident.

I am speaking from experience I have a couple of thousand hours on type I did experience a catastrophic engine failure on the type many years ago now the major thing about this event was the Prop did NOT auto feather as it was meant to... This has happened to others as well. I might also add I was very fortunate that day as it happened at 1 kt below V1 and we never got airbourne I'm certain that if we did I wouldn't be replying to your post.....

Good point.

The Let 410 is an excellent workhorse but IMHO it is the wrong aircraft for short bush strips where its performance is at best marginal.

Rather use a Twotter or a Buffalo where STOL performance is an issue, that way you have a better chance when someone loads an extra passenger with heavy bags and your luck takes a holiday.

Thanks for all the Great Information.
 

My Pilots are some of the best I have ever worked with and I will share this with them to enable us to have an open forum with all parties concerned and for everyones safety.

I often find I am in too much of a hurry to load as much as possible as quickly as possible... then as a former Para and Jumpmaster, I remember to Never Sacrifice Safety for Speed.

I also respect that My Pilots, and all of you, are the ones in charge of everyones safety, and you have the final word on what goes and what stays on the airstrip.

Hopefully some of us will learn to appreciate the safety rules in place a little more... so sad it had to cost so much.
Many Thanks again... and Blue Skies.