Crashed landing

AIR Namibia's international air schedule was disrupted for the entire first week of August as a result of a vehicle on the ground at Windhoek's Hosea Kutako airport having crashed into the airline's newest Boeing 747-400. Despite the damage to the wing structure close to the fuselage of the aircraft, ground service crews allowed it to take off on its scheduled flight to London, but Heathrow officials refused to allow it to take off with passengers aboard until repairs had been completed. The aircraft was then flown to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport where the Boeing maintenance is done under contract. Air Namibia has announced a full enquiry is taking place into the incident, with ground crews under investigation for allowing the damaged aircraft to fly. The driver of the truck is also under investigation. The aircraft cost US$650m, but the airline's operations manager, Captain Zeleke Demissie, has not, as yet, been able to assess the full costs of the damage and that of the rescheduling of passengers. Passengers scheduled to arrive in Windhoek from the UK on July 29, landed in Namibia via a Johannesburg flight two days later. Until alternative flights could be arranged, they were booked into hotels in London and Frankfurt and also with a stopover in Johannesburg. The repaired aircraft returned to its Windhoek base on August 4. (Leonard Neill)