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5 Februarie/ February 2016
Plane sailing gone wrong The pilot and his passenger escaped without major injuries after they made an emergency landing in a soya bean field just outside Standerton. The front wheel of the plane got stuck in the wet soil and the plane overturned. Civil aviation is investigating the accident. STANDERTON - The 73-year-old pilot of a Cessna C210 had to make an emergency landing in a soya bean field on Sunday, 31 January. The pilot and his 67-year-old wife departed at 10:05 from Brakpan to Richards Bay for a holiday when they experienced engine trouble. Mr JW Hodgson has more than 2 000 hours flight experience. At about 10:30 they were over Stan derton, roughly 24 km from Tutuka Power Station,
when Mr Hodgson noticed that the engine of his aircraft is losing power. Several residents in town said that they heard the airplane flying over Standerton and that the engine ‘did not sound right’. The pilot decided to turn around and land at the Tutuka airstrip, but about 11 km from the airstrip, the engine started to malfunction. A mere 8 km from the landing strip the engine completely stalled. Mr Hodgson had to do an emergency landing on the
farm Welbedacht, Vlakfontein, only a short way from the planned runway. As the soya bean field was still wet from the recent rain, the front wheel of the plane stuck into the wet soil and the plane overturned. The pilot and his wife were tended to by paramedics on the scene where he had to receive a few stitches but his wife was not injured. At print officials of civil aviation were still investigating the accident and the scene was cordoned off. JD