ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 272839
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| Date: | Friday 13 May 2005 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Solo Wings Windlass |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZU-ADJ |
| MSN: | WL 348 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | On the R711 tar road between Clarens and Fouriesburg -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | |
| Nature: | |
| Departure airport: | Estcourt Ultra City, KwaZulu-Natal |
| Ficksburg Aerodrome. (FAFB) | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On 13 May 2005, three microlight pilots planned to fly with three microlight aircraft ZS-CMA, ZU-CDU and ZU- ADJ on a long-distance navigational flight from the Durban Area, encompassing a large part of South Africa. Two microlights departed from La Mercy Aerodrome and landed at Estcourt Ultra City on the first leg of the navigational flight. The third pilot departed from Scottburgh just south of Durban and joined the other two pilots at the Estcourt Ultra City. After the pilots had uplifted 50 litres of fuel into each aircraft's fuel tank, they also uplifted 25 litres of fuel into the fuel containers that were strapped and secured onto the aft seat of the three microlight aircraft at Estcourt Ultra City. They nevertheless did not do proper pre-planning in order to land at a suitable airstrip for refuelling on the route they planned to follow. The pilots discussed the route to follow from Estcourt to Ficksburg and decided to fly over Winterton to Sterkfontein Dam and from there to Clarens en route to Ficksburg. The pilot of the leading microlight, ZS-CMA who is also a microlight flight instructor, stated that as they passed over Golden Gate and Clarens Golf course after a flight of approximately 2 hours, they intended to land somewhere to refuel as they had encountered stronger headwinds than anticipated and the fuel levels in their fuel tanks were becoming low. The endurance with full tanks is approximately 2.50 hours. As there was absolutely nowhere to land safely without risk and landing on the Clarence golf course was not a good option, he decided that the best option was to execute a precautionary landing on the tar road between Clarence and Fouriesburg. The three microlights then followed the R711 road between Clarens and Fouriesburg. The instructor pilot advised the other two microlight pilots who were flying approximately 800ft above ground level, to watch where he was landing on the tar road so that once they have landed, they could turn off the tar road onto a farm gravel road. He also warned them to watch out for high tension wires spanned across the road. The first two microlights, ZS-CMA and ZU-CDU landed safely and turned off onto the gravel road. The third microlight, ZU-ADJ attempted to land on the tar road, approximately 1km behind the first two microlights, but prior to landing, the microlight collided with high tension wires spanned across the road. The microlight then impacted the tar road and burst into flames. The pilot sustained fatal injuries and the aircraft was destroyed by the ensuing fire. Probable Cause The aircraft collided with high tension wires spanned across the road when the pilot was attempting to execute a precautionary landing on a road after his fuel level became low.
Accident investigation:
 |
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Sources:
S.A. CAA
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 14 July 2001 | ZU-ADJ | 0 | Scottburgh aerodrome | |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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