Twin Otter ZS-NJK down in the DRC

[gerhardv8]

Friday, 31-Aug-07 @ +- 13:30Z

South African reg: ZS-NJK, Twin Otter aircraft type, was reported "missing" soon after take-off from PUNIA (in the Kindu Region). Operator --- "AirServe Int" based in Goma. Crew are reported to be US Nationals.

Updated info received indicates a "forced landing"....both pilots were airlifted to Goma for medical treatment, by helicopter. Aircraft has been observed in Kisangani as well before.....

[Sir Osis of the river]

Sad to see an a/c that I spent many hours flying has crashed. is it repairable?

Glad to hear that the crew are ok.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Again? It got broken in Akon a year or so back as well.

Was that Punia or Bunia?

[gerhardv8]

Still no more info avail regarding damage to aircraft, should have some on Monday!

PUNIA (not Bunia) - to the N / NE of Kindu.......

[MungoP]

Best wishes to the crew... hope for a quick recovery... :ok:

[fly1981]

Used to see that aircraft alot in Bunia, Sad. Awesome crew. Any idea's on who the aircraft belongs to?

[SuperVanRider]

Prayers and best wishes to the crew... God Bless....:ok:

[Solenta]

Friday 31 August 2007 at approx 1300, a Solenta DHC-6 ZS-NJK on lease to a third party client, was involved in an accident 16 Nm east of Punia airstrip in DRC, approximately 8-10 minutes after take off from Punia en route Goma to the east, approximately 1hr 15 minute flight time.
The aircraft was located on a river bank.
The aircraft was on a lease to a third party client and crewed entirely by the client’s pilots, both US pilots flying on SA Validations. Both crew members are experienced DHC-6 pilots and have flown extensively in the area.

Both the pilots were located and extracted to safety by the client's own Search and Rescue party with a C208 dispatched from nearby Goma, to the east.
Solenta engineer was aboard the C208 involved in the S&R mission and the aircraft and crew were located within a very short space of time.
Solenta’s Emergency Response Plan was initiated at the distress call phase, and the follow up investigation is continuing.

Fortunately, both the client’s crew members are perfectly okay, sustaining no serious injuries.
The authorites - FAA, SA CAA and DRC CAA have been informed and have all the necessary information.
In a very short space of time, Solenta acquired a lot of information related to the accident, reports from the pilots, and reports from our engineer at the accident site.


The aircraft had no passengers or payload, as it was returning empty to Goma from Punia. Initial reports from the Solenta engineer at the crash site indicate that the aircraft is badly damaged.
The airstrip has been assessed, and used, previously by Solenta, and is deemed suitable for C208 and DHC-6 at MTOW.
Aircraft was serviceable, weather was VMC, day operations.

Chief Pilot
Solenta Aviation

[fly1981]

Good to hear!well done to all involved in the search and rescue, sounds like an excellent job was done!Best wishes to the pilots, hope you guys recover soon!

[gerhardv8]

Thank you so much for the update, well done.
PS: I seem to remember ex HydroAir Capt moving to yours few years ago?? .............lost contact though.

Best of luck!!

[pilot5]

Anyone know the name of the pilots in that Otter that went down? It might be my friend.

[TSHEKUDU]

PS: I seem to remember ex HydroAir Capt moving to yours few years ago??

He is with Simuflight at Grand central.;)

[V1... Ooops]

This press release from the operator provides further details, including the names of the crewmembers.

http://www.rdc-humanitaire.net/f/IMG/pdf/Flash_Info_No25.pdf

[pointer41]

I am glad all survived! Having worked with AirServ a number of times, I knew one of the crew. Aircraft you can replace (with difficulty!) but people not.

I also think a word of praise is due to Solenta: on the face of it, it seems like you had a well thought out and doable emergency response plan. Well done!:ok:

[Jamex]

Agreed Pointer41. Good to see a company instantanously able to respond with a well thought out plan in place and able to implement the same immediately. Congratulations to Solenta for their professionalism and all the best wishes for the crew.

[V1... Ooops]

The press release from the client (cited above) states that the crew made a "forced landing", but the description of the incident on Aviation Safety Network (http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20070831-0) states that the aircraft came to a final stop in a river. The owner of the aircraft has already mentioned earlier in this discussion that it was an accident, not a forced landing, and the aircraft came to rest on a river bank.

Was this Twin Otter being operated on floats, or is there more to the story than meets the eye?

[poorwanderingwun]

No... it was NOT being operated on floats...

Word is that the pilot felt that something was wrong with the rudder/vertical stabilizer... vibration/shudder... appeared to be getting worse and decided to make a forced landing... I don't know if the forced landing was intended to be into the river or things got out of hand and the a/c just ended up there... at least one of the pilots had considerable time on the twotter...

I'm not drawing any conclusions from this..

[DHC]

pilot felt that something was wrong with the rudder/vertical stabilizer... vibration/shudder...

Normal when you hit a power line few miles before :E

The landing was intended, no more rudder control; then they take the decision to land where they can ... rudder is few miles behind them ... with the power line :E

They were very lucky.
Nice also that they send an aircraft soon as possible to look for the crew.:ok:

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Power line in the DRC? That's optimistic...:E

Rudder hangings need to be inspected after a hard landing, tail strike or gust pushing it hard across onto the stops. Might have been missed but pure speculation at this point.

[DHC]

Well it was a cable from one side of the river to the other side, for sure the only one around; I think (not sure) that was a power line (low voltage).
I've got the pictures of it :hmm: then no doubt for me when you see the pictures.
They were doing low level flying, that's also sure at 100%

[V1... Ooops]

OK, thanks everyone, that's sufficient information for me. It sounds like it was an "outside influence".

[aime]

I worked for Air Serv in Goma. Pilots would drink, management would drink and smoke pot. Air Serv Headquarters in Warrenton Virginia did nothing to stop it, prefering to ignore reality.

They need a good lawsuit to wake up.

Now you know.:ouch:

[Woof etc]

OMIGOD!!!! A pilot who drinks alcohol!

[MungoP]

Aime... you're way off ! ( I quite like that )

Of course people drink alcohol... it's what it was invented for... pilots are people therefore pilots drink alcohol, even when working for Airsev... I know I did... But in all the time I worked for them I NEVER saw anyone going near an aircraft who might still have been under the effects of alcohol... as for smoking pot I never noticed it but wouldn't say it couldn't happen.. as with alcohol Iv'e never seen or heard of anyone there mixing it with flying... before you post any cr*p like that you'd better have some hard facts or it will be you that will be fighting a law-suit.

Hiding behind a silly pseudonym will be no protection.

[B200Drvr]

AIME, What has that got to do with the Twotter going down? If you are trying to imply something come out and say it, don't just make sweeping statements!!!

[aime]

Hey guys,

I don't make broad statements. Folks at Air Serv know who I am and what I am talking about. We have already had court issues...

Happy Flying.

PS: I do drink alcohol too. Cheers! :O

[V1... Ooops]

OK, enough already, let's not get into a fight.

[citpilot]

Funny, when I worked for ASI the only pilot who had a lawsuit with them had gotten canned for bringing unauthorized personnel in the facility, maybe their were others. Every company has problems but I've never heard of any drug use at all, to make it sound widespread is ridiculous and a slap to a lot of guys who worked hard, even if the companies policies and procedures were screwed up. Go easy.

[capnflyright]

Ahhh Air Serv!! I didn't drink while in the DRC program, but I can sure see why some did. For the most part a great group of people (the working class that is) and some real standouts who made the experience really awesome! I flew NJK for most of my tenure there, sad to hear it is no longer with us. Very glad to hear the crew is alright. I know one of them and he's a good guy. As for AIME, who is ya brou?

[capnflyright]

MungoP,
Coo-jat (haha) is dat you? If so, what in the hell are you doin down south in the islands? This is Big E

[Nickerbal]

NONSENSE!

Never seen the crew taking drugs EVER!
LAWSUITS - A very good way to try and earn money for now work; I call it Capitalist Socialism!

OVERALL PILOT ABILITIES - In my humble view actually very good and have met MANY ASI Pilots, and they can all fly an aircraft.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTTER - If one looks at overall flight hours / route miles flown and past accident records - Pilot OR Maint error overall then ASI has had a very fair run if you take the areas in which the operate.

The OTTER was an unfortunate incident and in the best places or worst places and in the best companies or worst companies things like SH:mad:IT happens.

[french_fry]

bottom line ASI is nto a bad outfit, i flew in Iraq, DRC, Tchad, Congo, Afghanistan and many other places for them.

You make what you can out of your experiences with them and have a good time. It allowed me to build good time and i now sit in a great job with great memories of the past, especially flying with Mungop over the hindu kush mountains...and getting our a@@ kicked by the gorgon!!!

You will get paid on time (even if it is not much) and you will fly well maintained airplanes... and the pilots are serious and capable people that are a real pleasure to work with. As for management in can be a different story at times.

[V1... Ooops]

Does anyone know what the status of this aircraft is now? Was it damaged beyond repair, or will it be returned to service?

[HSInop]

V1. it has been some time now from the last post about njk, but the word is that a North Carolina Co bought it and will do a complete rebuild. no hard evidence yet though.
I remember that power line, there were time I had to go low in that area going north or south or going to the two other strips nearby. didn't want to get into the soup then have to fish my way back down. There were times that dealing with the brass that just drove me to drink but i never witnessed other uses from anyone.
Been some time and best wishes for those that face the deep dark DRC.:ok:

[Goffel]

Sheeeeet....how did the story over the pot come out.

About 4 years back, flying NJK out of Goma for Airserve we used to fly plenty pot in the back
..
Never thought the story would come out.

We used to buy the pot in Entebbe, Uganda and fly the pot to Goma, where we would sell it at a moer of a profit.

We had a roaring trade going until some goon decided to buy pot in SA and re-sell it at a better price than what we were selling at.

The problem I had to admit, was, that, the Poitjies pot in SA were a better quality than what we were buying and re-selling from Uganda.

So ja, local is lekker.

Alchahol, sheeeet, old John Smuts used to brew his own "Witblits" in Kinshasa, but we could never drink it as just the look of it made you take the rightious path along the garden of eden.
..
And if any of you believe any of the bull**** that I have just written, then you will believe the other idiot on his insinuations that Airserve pilots smoked pot and drank alchahol before they flew....:E

Goffel....:8

[three eighty]

Hey Goffel
I always thought the Witblitz was pretty good. Almost as good as the biltong in Khartoum!!!!