Namibia: wildebeest cause plane crash

A Cessna 210 with the call sign V5- DOC went down on the farm Swart­fontein in the Windhoek District on Monday morning at around 09h30 with a pilot and two passengers on board. All three people were fortu­nate to have survived the crash with only minor injuries. The air crash was confirmed this week by the acting director of Aircraft Accident Investigations of the Min­istry of Works and Transport, Theo Shilongo. Shilongo added a prelimi­nary report on the crash is already on his desk. The pilot of the aircraft was a Ger­man national identified as a certain Rudolf Fischl, who is also the owner of the aircraft. It is believed Fischl flew with the two unnamed passengers from a nearby farm to Swart­fontein and touched down on the farm’s gravel airfield. As the plane touched down, two wildebeest reportedly crossed the runway, compelling Fischl to veer off the runway to avoid a collision with the animals. At the time the aeroplane was still at a substantial speed and the pilot was force to open the aeroplane’s throttle to take off and attempt another touchdown. The plane could not built sufficient speed for a proper take-off and it clipped a number of tree tops and crashed. “The pilot and the passengers were briefly admitted to a Windhoek hospital, but they were soon discharged. Mr Fischl, I believe, already returned to Germany,” said Shilongo. The position of the farm Swartfontein and the crash site was given by Shilongo as 90 km southwest of Windhoek.