What happened
On 20 November 1999, a Cessna 210G, registered ZS-ETX, was involved in a landing accident at the Entabeni Game Reserve. The flight originated from Air Force Base Swartkop. During the approach to the north eastern runway, the aircraft experienced a high-impact touchdown approximately 50 meters past the runway threshold. This initial contact caused the aircraft to balloon into the air, leading to a second touchdown at roughly 130 meters from the threshold.
Following a subsequent bounce, the nose landing gear separated from the airframe at a distance of 165 meters from the threshold. The aircraft continued along the runway before coming to a stop at the 200-meter mark. During the sequence of events, the propeller and the left wing tip made contact with the ground. There were no injuries reported among the five occupants on board.
The investigation
SACAA AIID investigators examined the flight profile and the pilot's experience levels. While the pilot possessed significant military flight experience totaling over 2,700 hours, they had very limited experience in civilian aviation, with only 46.7 total civil flying hours. Specifically, the pilot had accumulated only 5.2 hours of flight time on this particular aircraft model.
Findings
- The primary cause of the accident was poor landing technique during the final approach and touchdown phase.
- The initial landing was excessively hard, which initiated the subsequent bouncing and the eventual structural failure of the nose gear.