KLERKSDORP Airport staff and paramedics had to prepare for a crash landing yesterday morning when a light aircraft’s landing gear jammed – only to disengage at the last moment.
It was an anxious time for many people – the lone pilot most of all – before disaster was averted.
Pilot Jaco Pretorius was travelling from the PC Pelser Airfield in Klerksdorp to Carletonville when, close to his destination, he realised he couldn’t deploy his landing gear.
he anxiously contacted the owner of the Western Transvaal Flight School, Cliff Lotter, whose school was based at the same strip.
Lotter contacted emergency services in case the light plane, a Sting 2000 RG, would have to perform a potentially dangerous belly landing.
“They were on the ball, almost flying past,” said Lotter.
The pilot instructor was able to guide Pretorius. Then Lotter got into his own aircraft and flew under Pretorius’s plane. Two or three swan dives later, the landing gear finally emerged.
According to Lotter, Pretorius had a full tank of petrol, which would have given him about five hours of flying time.
Pretorius managed to make a normal landing.
By yesterday afternoon he was still waiting to find out if faulty wiring had caused the glitch.
“This is the kind of thing you have to expect as a pilot,” he said.
- The Star/IOL
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