Convair down in the Congo

[Ajax 28]

Just heard that the Sky Congo aircraft, ZS-SKH, went down in northern congo with all onboard.. Any confirmations??

[Speedbreak]

... , ex-DHL convair...
I have a pix of one of them,on the ramp in Cape Town , but I can't put any pix here on the site! :{
Help!

[Speedbreak]

The Convair hit a montain, near Bukavu, in North-East Congo, Kivu region!
Apparently, no one survive!

[Q4NVS]

Two good friends were alledgedly the crew - details are very limited indeed.

Please supply anything more concrete if available.

The poor families and children - it breaks my heart!:{

[Solid Rust Twotter]

It's insanity going anywhere near lake Kivu in IMC yet people continue to do so. A C208 was lost in the area a few years ago in IMC and I'm betting something similar happened here.

Thoughts with family and friends of those on board.:{

[Istorik]

LAC-SkyCongo is a subsidiary airline of the new South African Company Skyhaul. They started their job in the past year.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Just heard a mate was on board.:(

Thoughts with the families.....

[south coast]

i remember descending over lake kivu in imc trying to get into goma....lucky for me i was with someone who knew a little more than i at the time...

but we knew if over the lake we were somewhat safe, and then flew straight towards the mountain, perpendicular to the runway, 18-36 i think.

with radar set at 5 miles, when it started painting the mountain side at just under 5 miles we considered ourselves on a base and then turned to align with the runway.

thinking back now, i just wouldnt do that kind of thing anymore, but when you are there and you need to get in, you have to do what you can, and since the copper wire to vor's and ndb's was stolen long ago...what does one do?

sometimes our little tricks to places we thought we knew really well bring us in short of the required....

[340_co-jock]

Very sad news indeed. May their souls rest in peace.
Any idea on the crew names at all?

[Marcus the wise]

The names of the crew have been released. News and names can be obtained at the Mail & Guardian online news. I knew the one crew. I see these aircraft were operated by the "mighty" JO....mmmm. Rest in peace guys.

[Voel]

For some news and names of the crew go to www.news24.com

[flyboy2]

April 28 2006 at 11:22AM
From :http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?newslett=1&em=46225a6a20060428ah&click_id=68&art_id=qw114621516078B214&set_id=1
The SA Civil Aviation Authority was waiting for permission on Friday from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to travel there to investigate a plane crash in which two South African pilots died.
Captains Andre Nel and Charles Greyvenstein died on Thursday when the South African-registered Convair 580 they were piloting apparently fell from the sky on approach to the airport in Lubutu in the Northern regions of the DRC. Two Congolese air crew also died in the crash
"It fell and caught fire and four people died," Phindiwe Gwebu, spokesperson for the CAA said.
She said two CAA investigators were on standby to travel to the DRC to try to establish what led to the accident.
"We have sent communications to the DRC authorities but are still awaiting their response," she said.
Captain Johan Olivier, spokesperson for the plane's owners, said it was difficult to establish what happened.
"There are no communications in that part of the DRC. We do not exactly know what happened yet, there is no telephone reception in the area and we got the news via United Nations peacekeepers in the area," he said.
He was to fly from Kinshasa to Goma on Friday to try to establish what had happened and to arrange for the bodies to be flown to South Africa.
Olivier said Nel's two sons and Greyvenstein's wife and three children had been told about the crash.
The accident happened around 2pm South African time on Thursday. The pilots were flying cargo from Goma to Lubutu under contract for a Congolese airline.
They were apparently on final approach when the aircraft crashed and burned. - Sapa
Condolences to all.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

No idea what happened there. Lubutu is pretty flat AFAIK. Original reports hinted at Bukavu.:(

[policepilot]

Does Lubutu have an airport? If I remember, we landed on the road (about 150km SE of Kisingani). And the surrounding terrain is quite flat. Now Bukavu is another matter with serious terrain immediately to the west. RIP.

[reptile]

.....but when you are there and you need to get in, you have to do what you can, and since the copper wire to vor's and ndb's was stolen long ago...what does one do?
....

You NEVER need to get in. What you do is to turn around and try again later. In the battle between solid earth and fast moving aluminium machines...the earth is yet to lose.

The only people who gain when you do STUPID things like flying an unpublished approach on your weather radar (!!!) is the owners and operators. Keep doing that crap long enough and you are almost guaranteed to end up dead.

[vagabond 47]

EHHH?.......you cant be no African maan.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Got to agree with Reptile. Hanging your danglies over the edge only helps the operator and could get you killed. If you can't get in there's always another day.

This accident sounds like something else went pear shaped for the aircraft to quit flying on short final. Hopefully the CAA sends someone au fait with the aircraft/operation to investigate and not the usual mob of underqualified and inexperienced occupiers of office space.

[Atlanta-Driver]

Having known, worked drank with one of the guys who lost his life in this unfortunate accident,I would suggest that we keep the comments and theories how they might screwed up to ourselves and least not publish them on a public forum.

RIP Andre, we will miss you.

[SAA201]

Here's the article: http://www.tios.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=1014&fArticleId=3223802

[Desperate Wannabe]

Atlanta - Driver, I feel for you and feel your pain, it is never good to loose a mate, I know, buired more than I care to think of.
I spent until 2 in the morning pissing it up with "Neddy" Noakes just 2 days before they planted themselves onto a moutain at George with Hannsie on board, a long standing and good friend indeed. I was the first to get the call from search and rescue that the aircraft was overdue.
Strange thing is.... when its a mate, you dont want to believe that they stroked the cat, I found every reason under the sun for "Neddy's" death, everyones fault but his.
After an in depth study of the 256 page report.......they stroked the cat, like it or not.
There are ony 4 people that know what happened, and they can't tell us any more.
But talking and discussing the prang might keep some one alive, and as brothers thats what we do.. I would expect no less.
Your mate is gone, and as I said before "I feel for you and feel your pain, it is never good to loose a mate, I know, buired more than I care to think of."
And I am trying desperatly to get flying.......irony or what.....such is the beast.

[reptile]

Atlanta Driver.......Having lost more than one friend in a prang I believe it is very important to point out were things went wrong. If calling a spade a spade means that another mate re-thinks the way he operates and thus avoids becoming another statistic......then I think we've done well!

[SIC]

I dont want to scratch open a hornets nest....but anyway....regardless of how good , guilty or innocent the pilots of this flight was. Regardless of whether it turns out to be pilot error or a technical issue that caused this accident I seem to want to point the finger at the operator.

This same operator that sells ratings in half an hour at inflated prices to 200 hour comm pilots, the same operator that tried to set up night cargo routes in SA recently and had 2 ( might be wrong but thats what I heard ) yes 2 engine failures on these 580s in a week with the result that SAFAIR is back flying the night cargo. This was going to happen sooner or later - when you operate old machines with little maintenance, less training and J O as your boss.
Forgive me if I am wrong - this is a RUMOUR network after all.:confused: :\

Condolences to the people involved.

[mattman]

A news atricle clamied that they shot down. Can anybody shed some more light onto this.:{
My condolences to the families
Andre did my ppl test many moons ago. We will miss you.

[Q4NVS]

Having known both these guys for many years, all I can say is that it is (as always) a great loss to aviation and humanity in general..

One never had to be told when Andre was back in town, on a few weeks leave from Malaysia and Air Atlanta. You'd just hear his enthusiastic discussions and laughs about what he loved (aviation), from metres away. The general response, hey, Andre is back! :O

Charles, what a sincere and positive guy he was. Having loved aviation, he would also be the first to jump in his car after work, to spend maximum time with his wife and children. That was the friend I knew.. :ok:

It has been a sad few days for many of us and am sure will still be for many weeks and months to come.

My personal dream is that if they had to go, then it should NOT be without repurcussions for who/what we all know is an extremely "Dangerous and Unscrupulous :ugh: " operator - They had to pay the ultimate price!

Enough said, as I would like to take this time to remember my good friends.

For those interested, I will post details of the Memorial Service, as soon as these do become available.

RIP Boys, we will always miss you!:{

[3rdBogey]

Where do I find the link for the Convair that went down in the Congo?

[Solid Rust Twotter]

In what regard?

[NYERAGONGO]

i was the day that convair took off from goma to masisi , the report we got from the local people there , they landed on the wrong direction , the nose gear went in some big holes , the aircraft turned over ,caught fire ,and exploded ,because they were carrying drums of fuel for vadacom ,,,,,,

The load master was lucky , because he didn't want to get on board at goma : he said :" i have already load the plane , so you don't need me there at lubutu because the aircarft will be empty on the way back"

Lubutu is not a runway not even approuved , it's a road on the way to walikale ,,,can only fit small aircraft , even them they have trouble to land there,,,,,,The convair doesn't fit for this kind of operations . Before the were flying good routings in congo and making money , they stopped because they were grounded by congolese CAA ,the reason is sky congo didn't go through customs when they imported the three convairs from south africa "(rumors)" ,and they are in court now .So ZS-KKI and ZS-KKK are in kinshasa grounded . At the same time ,ZS-KKH was stuck in mbujimayi for two weeks ,no fuel . The owner decided to fly the KKH to goma to stay away from the court issues.That's how they end up there operating there; Means that the crew were new in that area ,not knowing the runway conditions,,,,,

SHOT DOWN is only theory , there is no more rwandese rebels around in masisi especialy on final approach , they have been pushed back to the north est by UN peace keepers last year or two , otherwise no aircraft or cars will get there,,,,,,,,,What's the reason for shooting?
Some officers are still investigating , we'll see what comes out next week???,

My condelences to the people involved

[gema]

Hi,
Any idea when the funeral/memorial service will be for Andre and Charles? Thanks in advance.
RIP friend and colleague

[Q4NVS]

Unfortunately the Memorial Service for Charles Greyvenstein was held on Friday 5th May 2006 - my sincere apologies for not posting those details earlier.

A funeral service for Andre' Nel will be held on Monday 15th May 2006, 11:00am @ the Dutch Reformed Church in Rubenstein Avenue, Moreletapark.

If you need directions, you can call Pretoria Flying School @ (012) 567 5124/5

:{

[sa172pilot]

Thanks Q4NVS for keeping us informed, and thanks for earlier posts.

I too did my PPL at PFS, Andre did my PPL test in 99. I didn't know him or see him around alot, but your words ring true, there was a buzz when he was there! A legend and true profesional, as I'm sure Charles is too.

Rest In Peace guys, condolences to the Families indeed!

Perhaps the love of flying is what got them into that situation.. we should all be inspired by their passion.
:(

[Contract Dog]

Once again we encounter a day in aviation where families loose children, fathers and husbands and yet we still feel it our duty as fellow pilots to place the blame on our peers who have done nothing more than perform the task handed to them. It is a sad day to me that we can’t stand together and give credit where it is due but rather take this tragedy as a personal slaying match to other crew. A sad state of affairs to say the least

My condolences to all who have lost loved ones in this as yet unsolved incident

Our thoughts are with you all

[OVERTALK]

June 14 2006 at 04:28PM
The South African plane which crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in April was not shot down, the SA Civil Aviation Authority said on Wednesday.
CAA's general manager of air safety infrastructure, Seboseso Machobane, said the investigation into the crash that left the two South African pilots and eight Congolese passengers dead was progressing well.
"The Congolese authorities have delegated some of their responsibilities of investigating the incident to us and we expect the time (it takes) to finalise the investigation to be very low," he said.
Captains Andre Nel and Charles Greyvenstein were killed on Thursday when the South African-registered Convair 580 aircraft they were piloting fell from the sky on approach to the Amisi airport in the Eastern DRC.
Initial reports suggested that the plane might have been shot down but Machobane said preliminary investigation ruled out the possibility.
The aircraft took off from Goma in the Eastern DRC to Amisi where the accident occurred on landing.
Two investigators from the CAA did visit the crash site in early May and took pictures of the wreckage. They had seen results of the post-mortem and other tests that were done.
Machobane said the DRC authorities would compile the final report on the incident and that the CAA was working very closely with them to finalise the matter. - Sapa

[ALLSTATIONS]

Thanx for the update

[PIPERJ3]

Hello guys...

Should one like to have a look at the crash pics don't hesitate to pm me and i will forward them to your private email....

thxs

[KnifeEdge]

Andre has been one of the most influential people in my flying career. I started flying at PFS and Andre was always there to offer advise and support.

I got to know him and Sonja and the two boys very well over the last 10 years and it was a terrible shock when we got told the news.

Andre had a true passion for flying, his family and his flying school.

From what I have been told happened it was not the pilots playing silly buggers, or anything like that.

So Rest in Peace Andre, you will be sorely missed and aviation has lost one of its greatest.

KE