Incident
On a scheduled domestic flight from Cape Town International Airport to George Airport (FAGG), Flight SA8625 carried three crew members and 32 passengers. The weather at George Airport was overcast with light rain. The aircraft was cleared for an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to runway 11. It touched down between the third and fourth landing markers. According to the air traffic controller, the landing appeared normal, but the aircraft did not turn left to vacate the runway as expected. Instead, it veered to the right, overran the runway, and continued past the ILS localizer. The controller activated the crash alarm. The cockpit crew did not broadcast any messages indicating a problem.
The aircraft collided with eleven approach lights, then burst through the aerodrome perimeter fence, coming to rest in a nose-down attitude on the R404 public road.
Evacuation
Several motorists stopped and assisted the passengers, who evacuated the aircraft through the right front service door and the left mid-fuselage emergency exit. Aerodrome fire and rescue personnel arrived within minutes and helped evacuate 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.
Investigation
The investigation determined that the crew were unable to decelerate the aircraft to a safe stop due to ineffective braking on a wet runway surface, resulting in the overrun. Contributory factors included: the aircraft crossing the runway threshold at 50 ft AGL at 143 KIAS, 15 kt above the calculated VREF speed; a 1.5-second transition back into air mode after touchdown followed by a 4-second delay in applying brakes after the aircraft remained in permanent ground mode; and two of the four main tires displaying limited to no tread, which degraded water displacement from the tire footprint and significantly affected braking effectiveness on the wet surface. Several non-compliance procedures were identified.