Hard landing for Air Force Museum Alouette II – no injuries
Date: 19 September 2024
An SA Air Force (SAAF) Museum Alouette II, piloted by retired general Piet Burger, made a hard landing at the Air Force Mobile Deployment Wing (AF MDW) on Wednesday.
He was practising for the weekend air show component of the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) exhibition, having taken off from what was Air Force Base (AFB) Swartkop west of AFB Waterkloof.
A SAAF statement has no there were no fatalities and the aircrew are in “a satisfactory condition”. Military aviation enthusiasts have it the Alouette II – not a III model as stated by the SAAF – encountered strong downdraughts. The tail boom broke off and the main rotor blades were damaged in the ensuing hard landing.
As is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) a BoI (Board of Inquiry) will be convened to “to determine the cause of the incident as well as the state of damage to the aircraft”.
Burger is a regular at the SAAF Museum flying training days and was part of what came to be known as the “Generals’ flight”. This saw him take to the air alongside John Church and co-pilot “Rassie” Erasmus with former SAAF deputy chief Hugh Paine the third flight member in an Alouette III.
Republished with permission of defenceWeb.
