Close encounter during emergency landing
Luckily no-one was injured in the third aeroplane accident in our area in less that two years.
The pilot and members of the Johannesburg Skydiving Club escaped unharmed when their aeroplane had to make an emergency landing on Saturday.
“No one even had a bruise,” says Eugene “Pottie” Potgieter, a well-known club member and owner of the plane.
Potgieter, two other passengers and the pilot took off from the club next to Carletonville Extension 9 in the CompAir 75LX at about noon.
The pilot soon realised something was wrong with the engine and made an emergency landing in the veld near Baard Street.
“What happened still feels surreal. We landed safely due to the pilot’s excellent skill and the plane design,” says Potgieter.
He said, however, that the plane sustained such severe damage that it would probably never fly again.
Although the Carletonville police attended the scene and notified the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), the regulatory body declined to investigate the accident further as no one was injured.
The incident was the second aeroplane accident in the Carletonville area in less than a month.
A Cessna with the farm owner, Mr Casper Botha and his wife Estelle, and an air tractor crop duster, flown by Mr Hennie Viviers (63), collided on the farm Arena on 29 December. All three died in the accident. Both aircraft belonged to Botha. SACAA is still investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, another accident occurred at the JSC almost three years ago when an Atlas Angel aeroplane with two pilots and six skydivers also made an emergency landing after having engine trouble shortly after takeoff on 12 February 2021.
Unfortunately, the incident left a passenger dead and another paralysed.
