Tanzania

During the takeoff roll on runway 34, the right engine failed. The captain rejected takeoff and initiated an emergency braking procedure. Unable to stop within the remaining distance (runway 34 is 1,767 metres long), the aircraft overran when the right main gear hit a pot hole, causing the right wing to be torn off. The aircraft slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest in a pasture. Two passengers were injured while 37 other occupants escaped unhurt. The aircraft was destroyed.

After landing at Mwanza Airport, the crew encountered control problems. The aircraft deviated to the left then veered off runway. While contacting soft ground, the nose gear collapsed and the aircraft came to rest near a taxiway. All 80 occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The crew consisting of one instructor and one pilot under supervision departed Mwanza for a local training flight with approaches and touch-and-go manoeuvres. Shortly after takeoff from runway 12, while climbing to an altitude of 800 feet, the twin engine aircraft rolled to the right then entered a right turn and an uncontrolled descent before crashing on the top of a small hill located 890 metres from the runway 30 threshold. The aircraft was totally destroyed and both pilots were killed, a British instructor and an Australian citizen pilot under training.

The twin engine aircraft departed Dar es Salaam Airport on a charter flight to Matambwe, in the Selous Game Reserve, carrying five Finnish tourists and one pilot. Upon landing at Matambwe Airstrip, the pilot decided to initiate a go-around procedure when the aircraft collided with trees located past the runway end and crashed, bursting into flames. All six occupants were injured, two seriously. The aircraft was destroyed by fire.

On approach to Dodoma Airport, both engines failed simultaneously. The captain attempted an emergency landing in a cornfield located near the Kizota district. Upon landing, the aircraft lost its nose gear and slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest. All 13 occupants escaped with minor injuries and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The aircraft was carrying tourists, including the organizer of the trip to Matambwe. These passengers included five adults, a boy of sixteen, three girls of eleven, five and four years. There was also an infant of 11 months. This trip was arranged by a company called Tent with a View Safaris, which owns a camp at Matambwe in the Selous Game Reserve. According to the company, initially two aircraft were organized to transport the passengers to Matambwe. The booking was made through a telephone call to an operator called Wings of Zanzibar, who advised them to go to Terminal I of Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. However, when the passengers arrived at the Wings of Zanzibar office at the airport, they found it closed. When Wings of Zanzibar was contacted on the telephone, a pilot employed by another company, DJB Ltd, was alerted to meet them. The pilot initially took them to the offices of DJB for payment. He also recommended that one aircraft would suffice for the trip. According to the pilot, he believed that the three children were small enough to sit on their parents’ laps. The passengers had little baggage. The aircraft, a Piper PA31-310 Navajo, took off from Dar es Salaam at 0825 hours and cruised at FL 65. The flight to Matambwe was uneventful and the aircraft was overhead the airstrip at 0902 hours. The pilot over flew the airstrip to alert the camp staff and check for wind and animals, a common procedure for landing in the Game Reserve airstrips. He also made another low run over the runway to ascertain its condition. Eye witnesses and passengers confirmed that the pilot made an overshoot, having flown very low attempting to land. The pilot was not sure of the runway condition because he had not flown into this airfield for a long time. In addition, before embarking on this trip, he had requested information on the runway condition from another pilot who had recently flown into the airstrip. He was told that the runway was usable. Finally, the pilot decided to land. He chose to land on runway 28 with full flaps. He touched down about two hundred and fifty meters beyond the beginning of the usable part of the runway and braked normally. After rolling for some time, he realized that the aircraft would not be able to stop before the end of the remaining length of the runway. With about another two hundred and fifty meters ahead, the pilot initiated a go round believing he had sufficient runway length remaining to gather enough speed for takeoff and climb out. He immediately increased power and initiated the go around. It is at this moment that the aircraft became airborne with no speed increase. The aircraft flew straight and level at full power without gaining height. It subsequently started chopping small tree tops for about two hundred meters beyond the end of the runway and then started to lose height. As it did so, the starboard wing collided with a large tree and the aircraft rotated through 180 degrees before coming to rest. The main wreckage settled below the impact tree and the passengers evacuated immediately. The wreckage caught fire immediately after the last passenger was evacuated. It burned completely, leaving only the tail fin and parts of the engine nacelle. When staff members from Tent with a View Camp located at Matambwe arrived, the aircraft was burning fiercely. They assisted in moving the occupants to a safer location, far from the burning wreckage and in administering first aid. The aircraft occupants were later treated at a local dispensary before being transported to a hospital in Dar es Salaam. One passenger died in the hospital four hours after the accident. Two passengers were treated for serious injuries. The injuries to the rest of the occupants were minor.

The aircraft departed Kamina on a special UN flight to Kigoma, Tanzania, with an intermediate stop in Manono, DRC. On approach to runway 16, the captain decided to initiate a go-around procedure for unknown reasons. During the second attempt to land, the aircraft descended below the glide and struck the ground, coming to rest 300 metres short of runway threshold, bursting into flames. All 5 occupants were injured while the aircraft was destroyed by fire.

On 23 March 2005 at 0533 hours an Ilyushin IL-76 cargo jet with the Republic of Moldova registration letters ER-IBR landed at Mwanza on a flight from Benghazi, Libya. It was carrying a crew of 8 including 2 ground engineers. All the 8 crew members were later involved in the accident. While at Mwanza, some 50,000 kg of fish was uplifted. At 1930 hours the commander filed a flight plan for Khartoum. The endurance was 0450 hours. The cargo manifest showed that ER-IBR was operating Air Trans Inc. Flight RIN 982 from Mwanza to Osijek, Croatia, with refueling stops at Khartoum and Benghazi. At 2000 hours the aircraft was given information relevant for take off as well as the departure clearance. ER-IBR subsequently advised that he was starting the take-off roll. This was the last communication received from the aircraft. The aircraft was observed to execute a normal take-off roll from runway 30. This runway ends 120m short of Lake Victoria. After observing that the aircraft was airborne, the controller who was handling the flight reported that he turned to complete the flight progress strip. Having done so, he lost visual contact with the aircraft that was supposed to be in a climb profile over the lake. Efforts to raise the aircraft on the radio failed. In about two minutes from the time that the aircraft was airborne, he saw a fire tender speeding along runway 30. It was then that he realized that the flight may have crashed. The Mwanza Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services were not equipped for operations in the lake. They were therefore unable to reach the aircraft, which was more than 1 km away from the shore. It was the fishermen at the lake shore near Mwanza airport who saw the aircraft going down in the lake. They proceeded to the crash site in fishing boats and brought back some documents (flight manuals and wiring diagrams) which they found floating near the wreckage.

The aircraft was taking off for a scheduled flight from Arusha to Seronera. At 12:15 hours the aircraft taxied from the apron to the threshold of runway 27 at which point take off for Seronera was initiated. The controller, who was handling the flight, said that the initial segment of the take off roll was normal. When the aircraft had covered about 500 metres he saw the left main landing gear collapsing and the aircraft swinging to the left of the runway. It continued to run on its belly pod on a grass hedge parallel to runway 27 and came to rest at the eastern edge of the apron. There was no fire and all the occupants deplaned without injuries. The aircraft sustained damage to propellers, the right wing, the fuselage and underside structure. The cargo pod in the belly was completely destroyed and its debris was scattered along the wreckage trail.

The aircraft was on a base training flight at Kilimanjaro International Airport. At 0410 hrs it was cleared to the local flying area for upper air works, followed by VOR/ILS approaches to runway 09 via NDB KB. 5H-PAC took off and proceeded to the local flying area where the crew members did upper air works for about 30 minutes. According to the commander, these included clean and dirty stalls, level flights at different speeds, 45 degree turns left and right and exercises on unusual attitudes. Subsequent to these they returned to the airport via NDB KB for ILS approach to runway 09. They carried out a missed approach and proceeded to join RH circuits for touch-and-go operations on runway 09. The last operations before the accident was simulated engine failure after take off followed by single engine overshoot, this time using runway 27. This was approved and the commander was reminded that the surface wind was 090 degrees 08 knots. The aircraft turned left and positioned on right base for runway 27. It was subsequently given a landing clearance. The weather at the material time was fine with temperature 23 degrees Celsius. The controller, who was handling the flight, said that the final approach was perfect. The landing gear was down. The aircraft passed the threshold of runway 27 at about 70 feet above the ground and continued to flare on a straight and level attitude with the landing gear retracted. It continued in this attitude for a distance of about one and a half kilometers down the runway subsequent to which it drifted off the runway to the right. The controller asked the pilot to explain his intentions. There was no reply. Instead, the aircraft was observed to yaw violently as it drifted further to the right. Moments later, it impacted the ground on a grass hedge and skidded along the width of taxiway Y before it came to rest. The commander said that he repossessed the controls immediately when the aircraft started yawing but there was no time effect recovery. There was fuel spillage but fire did not break out. The two pilots, who had not put on their shoulder straps, sustained facial injuries.