What happened
On the morning of 4 September 2022, a student pilot was conducting a training flight in a Piper PA-28-180, registration ZS-PET. The flight originated from Port Alfred Aerodrome in the Eastern Cape, with an intended destination of Virginia Aerodrome in KwaZulu-Natal. The flight was being conducted under Part 141 training regulations.
While cruising at 3,500 feet near Margate, the pilot requested a descent to 1,500 feet. Shortly after this request, the engine stopped functioning. The pilot attempted to turn toward the coastline and tried to restart the engine, but the failure persisted. At an altitude of approximately 600 feet, the pilot executed a forced landing on a beach near the old Durban Aerodrome.
Following the landing, the pilot was unable to establish contact with air traffic control via the standard VHF frequency. To signal the emergency, the pilot set the aircraft transponder to code 7700. This triggered a response from a nearby helicopter conducting a pipeline inspection, which subsequently transported the pilot to Virginia Aerodrome. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.
The investigation
SACAA AIID examined the circumstances of the engine failure and the condition of the aircraft. An aircraft maintenance organization inspected the Piper PA-28-180 upon recovery from the beach. The inspection revealed no structural or mechanical damage resulting from the forced landing.
During the post-incident inspection, investigators drained fuel from both tanks. They found 40 litres of Avgas in the left tank and approximately 4 litres of unusable fuel in the right tank. A subsequent engine ground-run conducted on 7 September 2022 showed that the engine operated normally at 2,000 rpm, indicating no mechanical defects were present in the engine itself.