Australian Aircraft Down In Malawi.

[airsupport]

Malawi Plane crash

Skynews Australia


A private plane carrying eight people believed to be Australian engineers, has crashed on its way to a mine in Africa, with all on board feared dead.

Local authorities say the Australian-owned jet crashed in a town called Dowa in Malawi 40 kilometres north-west of the capital Lilongwe.

There are no signs of survivors.

The engineers were on their way to a mine site in Karonga, around 400 kilometres north of Lilongwe, where Australian mining company Paladin Resources is constructing a mine.

[Dogimed]

Anyone know the rego of the aircraft? What company?

[bushy]

The late news corrected the report to 2 POB instead of eight.

[airsupport]

Malawi plane crash

West Australian mining company Paladin Resources has confirmed one Australian has died in a plane crash in the African nation of Malawi.

There were fears up to eight Australian engineers had been killed, but the company now says only the Victorian man and a local pilot were onboard.

The Australian chartered jet crashed in a town called Dowa in Malawi, 40 kilometres north-west of the capital Lilongwe.

The flight had been en-route to a mine site in Karonga, around 400 kilometres north of Lilongwe, where Paladin Resources is constructing a mine.

[desmotronic]

DJ Paladin Resources Exec Garnet Halliday Dies In Plane Crash08/03/2007 11:06PM AEST DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Paladin Resources Ltd. (PDN.T) announced the death of Garnet Halliday, executive general manager of operations and development, following a plane crash in Malawi.

Paladin said Garnet, 50, has been with the company since 2004 and was leading its development team in preparing for the construction of the Kayelekera mine in Malawi.

The company also said the pilot of the light aircraft, Frank van-Veuren, was also killed in the crash. Van-Veuren was principal of Executive Air Charter. There were no other people on the plane.

Paladin said it will seek an investigation into the crash.

Paladin is an Australian mining company.

[Lasiorhinus]

Authorities probe Malawi crash 'mystery'
By Andrew Geoghegan
...
Malawi air crash investigators are still trying to determine what brought the plane down.
The weather was fine.
Paladin chairman, Rick Crabb, has told ABC Radio's AM program the plane was well-maintained.
"It's a very experienced South African-born pilot, we've used the plane as a twin-engine, we've used it a lot - I've personally flown in it," Mr Crabb said.
"It is really a great a mystery and a great loss to us.
"A further investigation will hopefully clarify exactly what went wrong."

They used it as a twin engine? Does that imply to anyone else that it would be possible to use the same aircraft as a single engine, to save on fuel costs?? :=

[Pinky the pilot]

Today's (Friday March 9th) Australian has a small write up on page 5, and the second paragraph reads as follows;

'' The men were working for Paladin Resource, a mining company based in Perth, when their twin engined Piper 34 crashed near a town called Dowa, about 40km from the Malawi capital of Lilongwe''

Piper 34?:confused: A Seneca perhaps??