SA Flyer — Edition 263 — September 2017

42 SA Flyer Magazine

SYNOPSIS

The pilot was on a private flight from

Springs to George, and had landed at

Gariep to refuel. After takeoff from Gariep,

the pilot routed to George, but had to

divert to Port Elizabeth due to deteriorating

weather. After diverting to Port Elizabeth,

he descended to FL075 to avoid cloud.

Shortly thereafter, he encountered

severe hail that shattered the windshield

and the propeller. A forced landing was

carried out in a short and rough field. The

aircraft overturned during the landing. The

pilot declared an emergency on frequency

124.7 MHz before landing. He sustained

facial injuries during the accident sequence,

and the aircraft was destroyed.

The pilot was the holder of a valid

private pilot licence. According to the pilot,

he obtained an official weather report from

the South African Weather Bureau on 25

February 2008, and again on 26 February

2008 at 0130Z before leaving from Springs

Aerodrome. He left from Gariep Aerodrome

at 0800Z on 26 February 2008, flying at

FL105.

The last annual inspection was certified

on 20 February 2008 at 338.2 airframe

hours, and the aircraft had flown 4.8 hours

since.

PROBABLE CAUSE

The pilot flew into adverse weather

conditions and hail.

JIM’S COMMENTS

This is slightly different from most of the

other weather accidents we have looked at,

for two reasons. First, most weather-related

accidents result in death. And second, most

are caused by pilots deliberately pushing

their luck into known treacherous whether.

This guy did it accidentally through

ignorance. Obviously, he didn’t know he

was going to fly into windscreen-breaking

hail. And when he did hit trouble, he

handled it very well. He put out a radio

call and landed a broken aircraft in difficult

conditions without killing himself.

But now we have a problem. With light

aircraft accidents, you can nearly always

say that the root cause was either the pilot

or the aircraft. And you can’t blame this

aircraft for flying into crappy weather – it

was happily sitting in its hangar until it was

moved into a hailstorm. So we need to have

another look at the pilot.

Was he really blameless? Actually, no.

Would I happily have been a passenger

on that flight? Also no, again for two

reasons. First, the latest Met he had when

taking off from Gariep was nearly seven

hours old. This is simply not good enough

in thunderstorm season – a time when you

should expect the gods to hurl hailstones at

your aircraft.

Second, the pilot didn’t have a real grip

on the basics of meteorology. He was not

able to recognise that three red flags were

Accident Report

Jim Davis

CAUGHT IN HAIL

Aircraft Registration: ZU-DRI

Date of Accident: 26 February 2008

Time of Accident: 0945Z

Type of Aircraft: Jabiru J450

Type of Operation: Private

Last point of departure: Gariep

Aerodrome, Northern Cape (FAHV)

Next point of intended landing:

George Aerodrome (FAGG)

Location of the accident site:

Near Somerset East (GPS co-ordinates:

S 32° 36.09’ E 025° 23.19’)

Meteorological Information: According to

the official meteorological report from the

South African Weather Service, no official

observation was available at the time and

place of the accident. The surface trough

over the central interior and the cut-off

low pressure system over the Western

Cape caused thundershowers to develop

over the Eastern Cape, KZN, Free State

and Botswana. The thundershowers were

associated with heavy rain and hail in

places. The most likely weather at the place

of the incident was heavy rain with hail, and

gusty winds with visibility reduced to 1 km

or less.

According to the pilot, the following

weather conditions prevailed at the time

of the incident: Fine weather conditions, a

northerly wind at 7 kt, temperature 28°C,

good visibility.

Number of people on board: 1 + 1

Number of people injured: 0

Number of people killed: 0

PILOT-IN-COMMAND

Licence Type: Private

Age: 43

Licence Valid: Yes

Total Flying Hours: 411.7

Hours on Type: 330.6

SOUTH AFRICAN CIVIL

AVIATION AUTHORITY

ACCIDENT REPORT –

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This discussion contains

extracts from the

SACAA’s accident report

CA18/2/3/8109.

It is compiled in the

interest of promoting

aviation safety and not to

establish legal liability.

Cut-off low in Western Cape

• beware of thunderstorms.