Crash involving student pilot who mixed up left and right averted
A total of 164 people narrowly escaped death after a student pilot at the controls of a light aircraft turned left when he was instructed to turn right.
According to a report by the Accident and Incident Investigations Division (AIID) from SA Civil Aviation Authority, the incident occurred on Wednesday morning when a Prima 285 aircraft and a Safair 142 aircraft were both approaching East London Aerodrome (FAEL) at about the same time.
“The FAEL aerodrome control instructed Prima 285 (ZS-PTV) to make a right turn to allow Safair 142 (ZS-JRE) to land after air traffic control (ATC) cleared it for landing on Runway 11 at FAEL; however, the pilot of Prima 285 (ZS-PTV) deviated from ATC’s instruction and turned left instead,” said the report. The deviation from instructions led to loss of separation between the aircraft.
On-board the Safair aircraft were two flight crew, four cabin crew, and 158 passengers.
The Safair 142 aircraft landed safely and later vacated the runway.
The Prima 285 aircraft conducted one touch-and-go landing, reported safely airborne, and, thereafter, routed outbound via Keyser’s Beach.
No injuries were reported and neither aircraft sustained damage.
According to the logbook, the student pilot did not log any flight hours between October 11, 2019 and July 16, but performed a touch-and-go exercise at FAEL on August 23.
“The AIID investigation is on-going and the investigator/s will be looking into other aspects of this occurrence which may or may not have safety implications,” said a report by the SA Civil Aviation Authority.
-IOL
In other news – Zandie Khumalo on welcoming her first child
She kept her pregnancy a secret up until a few weeks before she was due to give birth. Singer and songwriter Zandie Khumalo-Gumede eventually opened up about her baby bump through an Instagram post on her page.
“A journey that is exciting and very scary at the same time but worth it, I wanna thank God for lesibusiso esisendleleni (the blessing that is on the way). I’m eight months in today and I can’t believe it’s almost time. We can’t wait to meet u Zenala ka mama [sic],” she wrote at the time. Learn More
