George

A Cessna S550 Citation S/II of the South African Civil Aviation Authority crashed into the Outeniqua mountains, near the town of Friemersheim. The three occupants were killed and the aircraft was destroyed. The Citation departed Port Elizabeth Airport (FAPE) on a positioning flight to George Airport (FAGG). On approach to FAGG, the flying crew requested to carry out a calibration flight for the very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) beacon at FAGG. Due to inclement weather conditions at the time, they were not cleared to conduct VOR calibration. As a result, they decided to land and refuel the aircraft before commencing with the calibration of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) on runway 11 at FAGG. The flying crew requested take-off from runway 11 and an early right turn to intercept radial 250°, 17 nautical miles (nm) DME arc to radial 330° at 3000 feet (ft) climbing to 4,000 feet. The air traffic control (ATC) granted their request. Radar data indicated that at 10:42, the aircraft took off from runway 11 and, once airborne, made a right-hand turn to intercept radial 250° using the George VOR (GRV VOR). The aircraft climbed to 3000ft. Once the aircraft reached 17 nm on the DME from the GRV VOR (DME is co-located with the VOR), it commenced with a right-hand turn to intercept radial 330° while maintaining 17nm DME arc. At 10:46, the ATC at FAGG advised the flying crew that they were now exiting controlled airspace and were advised to broadcast on the special rules frequency. The crew acknowledged the advisory to change frequency and there was no further communication. The aircraft was still being monitored by ATC using secondary surveillance radar. At 10:50, radar data showed the aircraft crossing radial 310° and entered a climb from 3000ft, reaching 3,900 feet. As the aircraft levelled off at 3,900 feet, a rapid descent occurred, and the aircraft lost 1500ft in approximately 9 seconds. Three seconds prior to impact, the aircraft nose pitched up before impacting a ridge at 2,192 feet. The aircraft was destroyed and all three occupants were killed.

Flight SA8625 departed from Cape Town International Airport on a domestic scheduled flight to George Airport (FAGG) with three crew members and 32 passengers on board. The weather at FAGG was overcast with light rain, and the aircraft was cleared for an instrument landing system approach for runway 11. It touched down between the third and fourth landing marker. According to the air traffic controller, the landing itself appeared normal, but the aircraft did not vacate the runway to the left as it should have. Instead, it veered to the right, overran the runway and rolled on past the ILS localiser. Realising that something was wrong, he activated the crash alarm. The cockpit crew did not broadcast any messages to indicate that they were experiencing a problem. The aircraft collided with eleven approach lights before bursting through the aerodrome perimeter fence and coming to rest in a nose-down attitude on the R404 public road. Several motorists stopped and helped the passengers, who evacuated the aircraft through the service door (right front) and left mid-fuselage emergency exit. The aerodrome fire and rescue personnel arrived within minutes and assisted with the evacuation of the cockpit crew, who were trapped in the cockpit. Ten occupants were admitted to a local hospital for a check-up and released after a few hours. No serious injuries were reported.

The aircraft was on a Domestic Charter flight (IFR) from Bloemfontein Aerodrome to George Aerodrome when the crew elected to execute an ILS approach for landing onto Runway 11. At 1,000 feet from the threshold of Runway 11 with the undercarriage selected down and at full flaps for landing at an IAS of 120kt when he advised the copilot that was the flying pilot at the time, to continue visually with the approach for Runway 11. Shortly thereafter they heard a loud impact sound and the right hand engine failed. The aircraft suddenly yawed and banked severely to the right and the flying pilot commented that they had experienced a bird strike on the right hand engine. The pilot-in-command immediately took over the controls and attempted to arrest the yaw to the right but the aircraft kept yawing to the right. He then made a blind transmission on frequency 118.9 MHz and called for a go-around. The co-pilot then selected full power on both engines retracted the undercarriage, whilst the pilot-in-command feathered the right-hand propeller. According to the pilot-in-command, the aircraft continued to yaw to the right and with the stall aural warning sounding with a loss of altitude, he pulled the left-hand engine stop and feather control and was committed to execute a forced landing on a cattle farm The pilot-in-command stated that aircraft was approximately just outside the boundary fence. Both wings collided with the gum poles of a telephone and wire fence causing extensive damage to the wings and fuselage under-surface. Both occupants sustained no injuries.

The aircraft was on a scheduled freight flight from Bloemfontein to George. Poor weather conditions prevailed over the George area and the pilots had to execute an instrument guided approach for the landing. The ground based Instrument Landing System (ILS) on Runway 29 at George Aerodrome was intermittently unreliable during the approach. The pilots decided to execute a missed approach. During the missed approach the pilots did not comply with the published missed approach procedure and with a combination of strong winds and possible erroneous heading indications they lost situational awareness. They flew the aircraft into a valley and crashed into the side of the mountains North-East of the George Aerodrome. The passenger was Hansie Cronje, a former South African cricket captain who had missed a South African Airlines flight.

On final approach to George-Pieter Willem Botha Airport, the twin engine airplane struck the slope of a mountain and crashed. Four passengers were killed while the pilot and another passenger were seriously injured.

Shortly after takeoff from George Airport, the airplane named 'Sir George Grey' went out of control and crashed. Both crew members were killed.