Museum Spitfire crash
Date: 15 April 2000
The SAAF Museum's Spitfire MkIX "5553", flown by Lt Col Neil Thomas (Museum OC), was destroyed in an emergency landing at AFB Swartkop during an airshow today. Neil Thomas miraculously survived with only a cut face requiring a few stitches, cuts and many bruises.
The aircraft was flying its display together with another privately owned Spitfire when several puffs of black smoke were seen coming from the engine. The pilot then banked sharpley right and tried to make an emergency landing, lowering the flaps and undercarriage but did not have enough height to reach the runway. The aircraft landed just outside the Base, but the aircraft slid on and crashed through the concrete perimeter wall.
The tail and right wing were torn off, and the fuselage split just behind the cockpit. Only after the Board of Inquiry has completed its findings will a decision be made as to the future of the aircraft.
Photographs by Karl Jensen.
