Hallo Formis,
ich möchte das alte Thema Insight Flights mit Moremi Air wieder aufgreifen. Moremi Air fliegt nach dem tragischen Absturz der Cessna wieder. Es wurde nach einem neuen Piloten gesucht.
Bei Trip-Adivisor gibt es hierzu nachfolgende Mitteilungen: "Have just returned from Botswana and had a bunch of flights with Moremi Air - as mentioned before: "fully functional"...they are, however, still investigating last year's crash, no offical results yet" vom 17.01.2012.
Und eine MItteiung vom 28.03.2012 from the Ngami Times:
"Pilots asking why the silence on Moremi crash
Many pilots and others in the aviation industry worldwide are asking why there has been no crash report issued by Ministry of Transport accident investigators into the Moremi air crash which killed nine people, including the pilot, last October.
The Cessna Caravan 208B, powered by a PT6 Pratt and Whitney engine, was burned out.
The report was expected in February but to date nothing appears to have been released to the public.
It is known that experts from the Cessna company, the manufacturers of the plane, have been to the crash site at Xakanaxa as well as experts from a company specialising in propellers.
Doubts are being expressed as to whether “Botswana is capable of investigating an aircraft accident” according to one pilot.
In comments on the website PPRuNe (Professional Pilots Rumour Network), a pilot's opinion is that “without the publication of proper investigations, lessons cannot be learned.”
A pilot called “Ragdragger”, writing from Tanzania, adds that “pilots have excluded almost nearly any possibility other than a mechanical one for the accident” while another is of the opinion that “the cause of the engine failure should be the most interesting issue. The PT6 is so extremely reliable that a failure at the critical time just after takeoff has probably never happened before to a single.
“A properly maintained PT6 simply does not fail so badly as to cause a serious fire.
This leads me to suspect a prop failure (bird?) or a fuel shortage. A fractured fuel pipe might explain the reported fire. Something very unusual must have happened to cause such a catastrophic failure.”
A New Zealand pilot, who says he flew in the delta, writes that “the cause of the engine failure should be the most interesting issue. The PT6 is so extremely reliable that a failure at the critical time just after takeoff has probably never happened before.”
A fellow pilot is quoted on the website as saying the accident was “not so rare as you think. In January 2009, another C208B caravan, A2-AKG, based in Maun, suffered power loss immediately after takeoff from Piajio airstrip on Chief's Island. In that case, however, the strip is surrounded by open swampland and in the resulting forced landing no-one was killed.
“If that was the case in AKD's situation, I would imagine that a similar outcome might have occurred, instead of in Xaxanaka's case where the airstrip is surrounded by trees”
He adds that both Caravans were maintained in Maun.
A pilot writing under the pen name “The Ancient Greek” asks whether an official accident investigation was ever published for the AKG incident – “sounds like there may be lessons to be learned about maintenance (as) this sort of thing does not happen to a properly maintained PT6”
In a lengthy report, a pilot signing himself “Foxcotte”, writing from Kenya, says the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Martin Gresswell, “was a good pilot - but human, so not absolutely infallible but very careful and correct.
“He was professional, experienced and knew Caravans and Botswana flying very, very well. He erred on the side of caution rather that took a gung-ho attitude, adored his daughter and having started a new life with his family in Botswana had everything going for him.
“He joined Moremi to fulfill a dream of becoming a management pilot, and was so chuffed at the start. Over 9 months that dream became disillusionment to the point he would rather return to what he had left in Kenya than continue with what he had found in Botswana. He left that decision a week too late.”
Recountng what may have happened that fateful day, “Foxcotte” says “it appears Martin got airborne out of Xakanaxa planning a normal departure to the right back to Pom Pom (camp). When whatever went wrong with the aircraft happened, he called a Mayday, banked slightly to the left and headed for the only clear area for an emergency put-down. With few options for anything, his left wing struck a tree ripping open the fuel tank and spiralling the aircraft down in flames into a bushy area of ground. All of that and the final outcome of the crash is in the public domain.
“What isn't known is what had happened to that aircraft/engine in the past - what had been replaced in the last overhaul, what components were near life or allowable limits, how many takeoffs in the past had been a bit over-temped, overtorqued, firewalled or how many accidental shut-downs/restarts had not been declared or if pilots/company had been operating out of manufacturer parameters. “I really don't think that Martin put the aircraft in the swamp for any other reason than he had absolutely no choice.
“There are people out there who have more information that has not been heard, who know more background to the situation, who flew the aircraft in the past.” "
I have a vested interest as the pilot was a personal friend from his time in Kenya."
Ich will den Artikel und die Ausführungen nicht weiter kommentieren, denke aber es ist befremdlich, wenn Moremi Air selber keine weiteren Informationen preisgibt und ein offizieller Bericht durch das Ministerium nicht veröffentlicht wird. Bei Moremi Air ist zwar wieder die Internetseite geöffnet, aber ohne weitere Informationen zu Flugzeugen und Status. Ich denke es wäre gerade im Interesse von Moremi Air hier doch einmal weitere Informationen zu veröffentlichen. Gerade weil diverse Touranbieter in Maun oder diverse CAmps hier die Gäste mit Moremi Air einfliegen lassen.
Ich bleibe an der Sache dran.
Grüsse tau