Preliminary Statement on the Durban/Maputo Aircraft Incident

6 OCTOBER 2006

CAA MEDIA STATEMENT

On Sunday, October 8 2006 a Jet Stream 41 aircraft took off from Durban and was headed towards Maputo with 17 passengers and 3 crewmembers. About 40 nautical miles out of Durban, whilst climbing on a height of about 14000ft to 16000ft the aircrafts’ right engine failed and it is speculated that it was due to the icing conditions that prevailed. The pilot sent a mayday to the tower in Durban and decided to return back. The aircraft is equipped with an Auto Restart and this didn’t kick in as expected. When the aircraft was about 5000ft from the ground the pilot decided to manually restart it and only managed to get it right when the aircraft was about 800ft. The pilot then climbed again and landed successfully at Durban. Upon landing, trauma counseling was provided.

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Contact: Phindiwe Gwebu

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