Fatal Crash Tanzania Today 15 November

[Phone Wind]

Reuters are reporting that a Cessna Caravan of Coastal Aviation en route from Arusha to a destination in Serengeti National Park crashed in the Ngorongoro Crater at about 1100L this morning. The pilot and all 10 passengers were killed in the accident:

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - At least 11 people were killed in northern Tanzania on Wednesday when a light aircraft flying to the Serengeti National Park, a popular tourist destination, crashed, the flight operator said.

The Cessna Caravan light airplane, carrying a pilot and 10 passengers, was flying tourists from the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha when it went down in the Ngorongoro crater at about 0800 GMT, Coastal Aviation said in a statement.

The Tanzanian air charter company said the identities of the dead would be withheld until their families are notified.

"This is devastating," the company said. The cause of the accident was unknown, police said.

The nationalities of the tourists on board the aircraft could not be immediately established.


This comes just 3 weeks after Coastal had an accident when landing a Caravan at Lobo airstrip in Serengeti. Luckily in that one there were no serious injuries, though I heard that the aircraft was written off.

It’s sad that 2017 is turning out to be a bad year for Coastal Aviation, ‘The Flying Safari Company’ which has one of the largest light aircraft fleets in East Africa operating to the national parks and offshore islands

[mkenya]

It is unfortunate that the founder passed away not long ago .

[Phone Wind]

As a result of its 2 recent accidents Coastal Aviation has, with immediate effect, introduced new experience levels for Captains flying to bush strips, a requirement for safety pilots on all flights and line checks every 2 months for bush Captains. These will have an impact on commercial operations with more restrictions on payloads on many routes, but Coastal doubtless hopes operational safety will be improved and public confidence will be restored.
No causes of the fatal accident in Ngorongoro area have yet been established. It would be interesting to know if Coastal has any sort of FDR fitted to its fleet and if not, whether it will now start.
The company is also commissioning a top-down independent audit of all its operations in addition to the official AIB investigation.

https://atcnews.org/2017/11/20/coastal-aviation-updates-standard-operating-procedures/

[Klimax]

Well, at least this would appear to have an immediate improvement in the overall safety of the operations, once implemented on all sectors. Hopefully the Captains meeting the highest requirements will have the “right” attitudes towards a healthy safety culture, rather than just meeting a minimum of flight time requirement.

[bluesideoops]

Interesting that they do not reference the two accidents or express any sympathy or empathy towards them but perhaps focussing on improvements now. However, very constructive ideas on the future safety but I think operationally will add further pressures to the system with such high PIC requirements, it will be hard to find that level of experience willing to live in Tz on the existing contract. @phonewind there are no FDRs and wouldn't expect them to be added as probably an expensive STC and will only provide post-accident data - what's needed now is prevention/proaction. @Klimax, yep that's the true clincher, just because you have hours doesn't make you a professional pilot with a good safety attitude. Whatever the case, very encouraging to see Coastal taking positive steps to avoid a repeat of these two terrible accidents.

[Klimax]

I'm unaware of the current Costal Aviation CoS and their ability to retain talents. In the past Coastal was definitely able to attract some of the better "shaped" bush pilots around - with the influence and focus of both the former owner, Nicola (RIP) and even the Swedish lady, Anna. The CoS definitely used to be competitive for the segment and location. Obviously the current worldwide airline rise to the sky recruitment will help in draining some of the "younger" hour building pilots to leave earlier than it has been the case in the past, possibly resulting in management compromising in upgrades and recruitment - but this is speculations on my side. For sure there were, and possibly still is, some well qualified "hang arounds" that would not leave the company. I hope the best. Coastal Aviation used to be the only company, as such, that I myself would have sent (and did so) my family flying with - though this has obviously changed dramatically after the two latest accidents! Sad though.