Four pilots dead and all of them at least partly at fault for the crashes that killed them.
That’s the grim tally after the Civil Aviation Authority issued its latest batch of accident investigation reports this week.
They deal with:
- A paraglider crash in KwaZulu-Natal in June 2019;
- A plane crash in Vryburg, North West, in October 2019;
- A helicopter crash near Eshowe, KZN, in December 2019; and
- A plane crash near Nelspruit Aerodrome, Mpumalanga, in November 2020.
Paraglider ‘concentrating more on his filming’
Videographer and photographer Dirk Chalmers died when his paraglider went into a spiral and crashed at the Bulwer 1000 mountain launching site in the Mahaqa mountains.
Chalmers, 32, from Johannesburg, was making his third training flight of the day and had 3½ hours of flying experience. He needed four more flights and another 30 minutes’ experience to obtain his licence.
“He was under the radio instruction of the chief flying instructor and take-off instructor [from Wildsky Paragliding School],” said the CAA accident report, compiled with the input of an expert from the South African Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.
“After [Chalmers] had completed the required manoeuvres, he was handed over to the landing site instructor for the radio instructions to land the paraglider.
“During approach for landing, the paraglider entered into a spin which progressed into a spiral. [Chalmers] was unable to recover from the resultant spiral due to insufficient height. He impacted the slope on approach path to land, adjacent Bulwer reservoir.”
The report said the accident was recorded on Chalmers’ helmet camera and corrupted footage was recovered by specialists in the US.
Witnesses describe the KZN helicopter crash that claimed 5 lives
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“The final footage ... contained vital information regarding the last segments of the flight. Without this information, a very different conclusion to the possible causal factors would have resulted,” said the report.
Ironically, it was this video evidence that suggested Chalmers was distracted by his camera equipment and filming requirements.
“[He] was flying without performing his post-launch checks sufficiently and, seemingly, was concentrating more on his filming and his body position to enable his filming than flying the paraglider with the commensurate weight shift and attention,” said the report.
Chalmers had relied too much on his brakes to turn the paraglider and too little on shifting his weight, causing the spin that developed into a fatal 50m spiral.
Additionally, the camera caused Chalmers’s helmet and spectacles to move during the flight, “which required correction by using his hands which were also controlling the brakes”.
The investigator recommended that Wildsky ban student pilots from wearing helmet cameras and that instructors emphasise the importance of weight shifts when executing turns.
Plane full of beer bottles crashed into house
A commercial pilot at the controls of a 55-year-old single-engine aircraft died after it made a sudden turn after take-off, crashed in a residential street next to Vryburg Aerodrome and smashed into a house.
Broken beer bottles were found in the wreckage and the passenger who suffered serious injuries told investigators he and the pilot had bought them because by the time they landed at Wonderboom, bottle stores would be closed.
The pilot and passenger flew from Wonderboom, north of Pretoria, earlier in the day to visit family and friends in Colridge.
They landed at 1.15pm and were airborne again on their return journey by 3.50pm. “The passenger stated that during take-off, the aircraft made an early right turn approximately 12m above ground level and at the height of the power lines [parallel to the runway],” said the accident report.
“The pilot had to manoeuvre the aircraft to avoid colliding with electric lines ... which he narrowly cleared. The aircraft continued with the right turn and began to lose height until it impacted the road and, later, two trees.
“The aircraft continued to skid for approximately 15m before hitting and damaging a property perimeter fence, as well as its concrete pillar on the veranda, the window pane, a garage wall, a garage door, a car parked in the garage and a tap before it came to a stop.”
The report said broken beer bottles in a cooler bag were found in the wreckage, with more “all over the cabin” of the four-seater plane, which had been rented from a flying school.
“The investigation team could not determine how many were there or whether they were empty before impact,” said the report, adding that post-mortem and toxicology reports were not yet available.
“Should any of the results have a bearing on the circumstances leading to this accident, it will be treated as new evidence that will necessitate the reopening of this investigation.”
The report said the crash had its roots in the pilot’s decision to turn right immediately after taking off, when guidelines suggested turns should not be made before aircraft reached 500ft (about 150m) above the ground.
The turn, combined with a crosswind from the left, “resulted in a tailwind condition, which accelerated the aircraft, making it reach the power lines sooner than anticipated. The pilot took an evasive manoeuvre to avoid colliding with the power lines, however, this resulted in the pilot losing control of the aircraft and it subsequently crashed.”
Helicopter pilot killed by ‘lack of situational awareness’
Power lines were also involved in bringing down a crop-spraying helicopter near Eshowe.
The 34-year-old pilot who died in the crash had nearly 4,000 hours of flying experience but a “lack of situational awareness” resulted in his Robinson R44 hitting lines that ran across a valley on a farm in Semungu.
“One main rotor blade detached from the helicopter on impact with the power lines,” which were severed, according to the accident report.
“The helicopter then banked to the right and flew over the farm houses for a further 50m before impacting the ground. A post-impact fire ensued.”
The farmer and his son rushed to the scene of the accident and removed the pilot from the burning wreckage. “However, [he] had succumbed to his injuries and the helicopter was destroyed during the accident.”
The helicopter was operated by Vortex Aviation, which had another Robinson R44 crop-sprayer damaged when it made a forced landing in 2013 after narrowly avoiding power lines at Ntomeni Sugar Estate near Eshowe.
Pilot ‘wasn’t rated to fly the plane in which he died’
Investigators who probed last month’s crash at Nelspruit Aerodrome that killed the owner of a five-star retreat and spa have recommended the issuing of an urgent “notice to airmen” about crosswinds that can make landings dangerous.
André van Heerden, of Summerfields Rose Retreat and Spa on the Sabie River in Hazyview, died when the Cirrus SR22 he was piloting bounced on touchdown last month, then crashed in flames after hitting several pecan trees.
The preliminary accident report revealed that Van Heerden, 63, was not rated on the type of aircraft he was flying and had not completed the conversion training required by civil aviation regulations.
Investigators studied closed-circuit television footage of the plane’s last moments and spoke to two pilots who witnessed the crash.
“They reported that ... when the aircraft was flaring, it lost lift and touched down hard on the left of the runway centreline,” said the report.
“The aircraft bounced back into the air and the pilot immediately applied power to do a go-around. The pilots had observed the aircraft in a steep bank angle to the left, with the wind from behind.
“The aircraft did not gain altitude; it remained in a left-wing low nose-high attitude until it disappeared behind the trees on the eastern side of runway 22 [the runway used for all landings at Nelspruit].”
The two pilots ran to their vehicle, but before they reached it they heard an impact and saw black smoke.
"[Van Heerden] was fatally injured in the accident. The aircraft was consumed by post-impact fuel-fed fire that erupted after the accident,” said the report.
In their recommendations, the investigators said pilots familiar with Nelspruit Aerodrome reported that when a westerly or northwesterly crosswind is blowing, an approaching plane can experience a sudden “sink rate/loss of lift” just before touch down.
“This is caused by the rotor effect from the hangars that have been erected on the western side of runway 22,” said the report.
“The structures block the wind, which then forms a rotor action into the path of a landing aircraft. An aircraft in the landing configuration would thus fly slow, often with flaps extended and gear down, which in turn causes the aircraft to be more prone to losing lift due to the unstable rotor action of the prevailing wind.
“If the pilot is not expecting the sudden loss of lift, he or she might have a hard landing, or bounce back into the air. If he or she reacts too hastily by adding full power at a low speed, directional control may be lost (due to the engine torque), or the aircraft may enter a stall, which could have fatal consequences.”
The investigators also recommended the installation of a windsock on the roof of the first hangar next to the runway.
“This will allow pilots the opportunity to make a proper assessment of the wind velocity and direction while on approach.”
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