Pilot Crashes Plane After Fight With Wife

Pini Bothoko | Monday March 25, 2019 18:00

 

The Kalahari Air Services pilot had attended a party with his family at the clubhouse, where a disagreement with his wife ensued.

Managing director for Major Blue Air, Arjinder Sing confirmed the incident to The Monitor when reached for comment.

Sing stated that despite the fact that the deceased was a pilot for another company, he was licensed to fly similar planes to those under Major Blue Air’s care.

“Yes it’s true one of our planes that was on standby to attend emergencies crashed and burnt to ashes on Saturday. A pilot not from our company but from Kalahari Air Services crashed the plane,” Sing said.

“I am informed he was drunk, got into a misunderstanding with his wife, left the party, stole and flew our medical flight that was on standby to attend to emergencies and crashed it.”

Sing added that those attending the party tried to intervene, calm the deceased who was a South African national, but hit a snag.

“He had access into our medical flight, flew it and crashed it into the control power where the party was held. Luckily, the party attendants saw his motives on time and were advised to run for their lives and fortunately no one was injured,” he said.

Asked if the pilot was suicidal as alleged, Sing said he could only confirm that the deceased deliberately smashed the plane into the building where the party was held.

He said all of the attendants survived, but heard that some sustained minor injuries when running for their dear lives. “A number of buildings surrounding the control power, few cars that were parked in front all burnt to ashes.

By the time the fire attendants arrived it was already late, as everything had burnt to ashes. Investigations on the matter are ongoing, this is what I can share with you at this point,” Sing said.

The Monitor has learnt that before crashing the plane, the deceased had allegedly hit his wife and everybody chased him away for treating his wife that way.

The deceased nearly killed about 50 people who attended the party. The guests according unconfirmed reports included a substantial number of children.

On Sunday afternoon Matsieng Flying Club issued a media release stating that on Saturday around 18:20 a 2016 Beechcraft Kingair B200 aircraft A2-MBM was involved in a ground impact incident resulting in the death of the pilot and the destruction of infrastructure at Matsieng Aerodrome.

They media release stated that the deceased was an uninvited guest at a private function that was held at the flying club.

“The club facility and Matsieng ATC tower were destroyed on impact and the post impact fire destroyed 13 parked vehicles,” the statement reads.

Reached for a comment, The Botswana Police Service deputy public relations officer Near Bagali confirmed that the police together with Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana team are on the ground busy with the investigations.

“We are involved in the matter because of the destroyed property as well as the cars that were damaged. As of what really transpired, the suicide allegations I cannot comment because the bulk of those investigations are done by Civil Aviation team,” Bagali said.