Well, airplanes seem to be a hot topic this morning…
Whilst this isn’t exactly the Boeing Dreamliner, what these guys did is still no mean feat.
Pilots Wynand van Niekerk and John-Voght Roussow were flying from Fort Beaufort to George, via Port Elizabeth to re-fuel, when they realised they had an air blockage and fuel was not getting to the engine.
We realised there was a problem when they fuel light came on. I took the side panel off the inside of the aircraft and saw there was an airlock and no fuel was going through. That is when we made a call to do a precautionary landing.
Van Niekerk then alerted the PE Air Traffic Control that they were going to do an emergency landing on the N2 near Sundays River.
I circled the road once looking for a gap between the vehicles and then came in low above the vehicles and landed. As I was landing I had to accelerate to ensure that I outran the cars.
Once we landed on the road I turned the engine off and veered on the grass middle island. It was definitely an experience. The main concern was to land in a safe area and in an area where the wings wouldn’t clip something.
Traffic officials blocked the N2 for about 20 minutes whilst Roussow, who is a mechanic, fixed the problem. They then took off again and made their way to PE airport and finally to George.
Never a dull moment…
[Source: Herald Live]
