Part 94: Namibia

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This plane crash takes us to the West African nation of Namibia, which is located next to the following countries: Angola, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.

WARNINGS OF A PLANE CRASH

Pictured above is a similar type of aircraft that was involved in this crash

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Pictured above is a similar type of aircraft that was involved in this crash.

South African Airways Flight 228, registered as Zulu Sierra- Echo Uniform Whiskey (ZS-EUW), was a scheduled international passenger flight from Jan smuts International Airport (IATA: JNB, ICAO: FAOR), Johannesburg, South Africa to Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), London, England, the plane operating this flight, which was only a 6 week old Boeing 707 aircraft, flew into the ground soon after takeoff after a scheduled stopover at Strijdom International Airport (IATA: WDH, ICAO: FYWH), Windhoek, Namibia on the 20th of April 1968, five passengers survived while 123 people were killed in the accident (128 in total were on board), the accident is the deadliest aviation accident to date in Namibia.

The aircraft took off from Windhoek on Runway 08 at 18:49pm GMT (20:49pm local time), it was a dark moonless night with few lights on the ground in the open desert east of the runway, the plane climbed to an altitude of 650 feet (200 meters) above ground level, the plane levelled off after 30 seconds and then it started to descend, fifty seconds after takeoff, the plane flew into the ground in flight configuration at a speed of approximately 502 kilometres per hour, the four engines created four gouges in the soil before the rest of the aircraft hit the ground and broke up, two fires broke out when the fuel ignited, although the crash site was only 5,327 meters (17,477 feet) from the end of the runway, it took 40 minutes to reach the scene because of the rugged terrain.

The summary of the crash was Controlled Flight into Terrain caused by Pilot error, spatial disorientation and design flaw.

Pictured below is the crash site.

Pictured below is the crash site

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