The two pilots flying the pair of Albatross aircraft that crashed into the side of a mountain near Tzaneen did not send out an emergency call before the impact, a preliminary investigation, released on Wednesday, has found.
“Whilst the investigation is still ongoing, the preliminary report has confirmed a few issues,” Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Kabelo Ledwaba said on Wednesday.
He said the aircraft, registration numbers ZS-NJX and ZU-MMI, carrying six and seven people respectively, took off from Tzaneen aerodrome on August 14 at about 10.20am on private flights expected at the Rand Airport in Joburg later that day.
They had been at an airshow in Tzaneen for the weekend and were on their way back to Joburg.
“After both aircraft failed to arrive at Rand Airport at their expected time of arrival, numerous attempts were made to contact the aircraft,” Ledwaba said.
“After these attempts turned out to be fruitless, a search and rescue mission was initiated to look for these aircraft,” he said.
Bad weather meant it took nearly two days to find the wreckage of both aircraft in the Lekgalametse valley in Limpopo, about 40km southeast of Tzaneen.
The report said nobody would have survived the accidents.
“Both aircraft were destroyed by impact force and post-impact fire, and all the occupants of both aircraft were fatally injured,” said Ledwaba.
The report further states that according to the available information, the aircraft flew in formation and ZS-NJX was leading this formation.
“The pilots were communicating to each other while in the air, but there is no evidence of any declaration of an emergency made before the accident occurred.
“The aircraft were heard flying through the escarpment by a witness, who saw them moments before they disappeared into the clouds.”
The crash sites were about 75m apart on a steeply sloping mountainside.
The wreckage of ZS-NJX was found on a “steep slope of approximately 60 degrees, with a number of outcropped rocks and several trees and bushes in the vicinity”.
The ZU-MMI wreck was on a “steep, wet and slippery slope of approximately 80 degrees, with many huge, outcropped rocks, and a lot of tall trees”, said the report.
The CAA investigators found that the aircraft had standard navigation and communication equipment, and no defects were noted before or during the flights.
“The aircraft were not fitted with flight data recorders, cockpit voice recorders, or emergency locater transmitters as these are not required to be fitted on this type of aircraft by the applicable civil aviation regulations,” said Ledwaba.
Both pilots had valid licences, with more than 7 000 flying hours between them, one aircraft had a valid certificate of airworthiness and the other had a valid authority to fly.
“The terrain where the aircraft that was leading the formation was found is a steep slope with a number of outcropped rocks and several trees in the vicinity, but no pre-impact damage to the trees was observed in the vicinity of the wreckage site,” said Ledwaba.
“The terrain where the second aircraft was found is also a steep and slippery slope with huge outcropped rocks and lots of tall trees.
“A number of pre-impact marks were observed on top of the tall trees, and part of the left-wing structure was found stuck on top of the tall trees.”
The report does not name the pilots or the passengers.
At the time, it was reported that on ZS-NJX were pilot Peter Geldenhuys and passengers Peter and Stuart van Oldenborgh, Franz Dely, Marietjie de Witt and Linda Pierce.
On ZU-MMI were pilot Brian Gruar and passengers Marian Anderson, sisters Madison and Alexandra Doak, Louise Warden, Tess Spence and Kevin Woolacott.
Speculation at the time was that the aircraft were in thick cloud when they flew into the mountain and the weather office recorded low cloud.
SOME "pre-impact marks" were found on tall trees after two aircraft crashed outside Tzaneen, according to a SA Civil Aviation Authority preliminary report.
The aircraft were flying in formation and seen by a witness moments before they disappeared into clouds, according to the report released yesterday.
They crashed in the Lekgalametse valley, northeast of Tzaneen, Mpumalanga, on August 14, killing 13 people.
"The terrain where the second aircraft was found is a steep and slippery slope with huge outcropped rocks and lots of tall trees," the report says. "A number of pre-impact marks were observed on top of the tall trees and part of the left wing structure was found stuck on top of the tall trees."
The terrain where the leading aircraft was found was a steep slope with a number of outcropped rocks and several trees. No pre-impact damage to trees was observed near the wreckage of the first plane.
The Albatross planes took off from Tzaneen aerodrome at about 10.30am, bound for Rand Airport east of Johannesburg.
There was no evidence of any declaration of an emergency before the accident.
The aircraft were fitted with approved standard navigation and communication equipment. No defects were entered against the equipment before the accidents, or during the flights. Both pilots had valid licences.
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