admin
area near Insuza in Matabeleland North last week yesterday said he made a forced landing after the aircraft engine developed a technical fault.
In an interview with Chronicle from Harare, Mr Bradley Hook (22), said he tried to use every skill he had to control the plane until it landed on a small grass track in the forest.
The incident occurred on Wednesday last week at about 3.50pm.
Mr Hook of Pomona in Harare, and two passengers, Mr Andrew Backer, the co-director of Koala Park Investment of Chitungwiza, and Mr Graham Keith of Bulawayo, did not sustain any injuries.
“We were on a flight from Hwange Airport (FVWT) to the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport (FVBU) in a Cessna C182 aircraft. After suspicions that the aircraft was not running normally, I altered my course left to try and get closer to the main A8 road as we were over the Forestry Commission area and there was no suitable landing area if an emergency occurred,” said Mr Hook.
“The engine cut out due to fuel starvation. After carrying out the restart procedures without any luck, I executed a forced landing in the best possible manner taught to me and called an emergency May Day on both the Harare Information (125.1) and JMN Nkomo Approach (119.7) frequencies but got no response from either. The passengers remained calm and listened to my instructions, which made it easy for me to concentrate on the landing.
“We landed on a small grass track to the side of a vlei after hitting some dense shrubs and got pulled into the bush where the nose wheel collapsed. We came to an abrupt halt and vacated the aircraft as fast as possible.
“No injuries were sustained by the pilot or the passengers. Within an hour of my calculated expected time of arrival (ETA), the owner of the aircraft had sent a ground rescue team out and he was ready to depart with another pilot in a Cessna C210 to come and search for us. The accident occurred at about 64 miles away from the JMN International Airport,” he said.
Meanwhile, the officer commanding police in Lupane district in Matabeleland North, Chief Superintendent Johannes Govo, said the wreckage of the aircraft, which is blue and white in colour, registration number Z-MIN had been retrieved.
He said the aircraft was taken to Insuza Police Station on Tuesday night for safekeeping and the engineers collected it on Wednesday morning.
The crew was in Hwange reportedly on a business mission to seek new markets for btheir frozen chicken and beef products.
See picture on Page 2
Online Reporter