South African Airlink Flight 8911
BAe Jetstream 41 · Engine failure leading to pilot error; shut-down of operating engine
From King Shaka International Airport (DUR) to Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA09WA079
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- 2
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3 · 1 on the ground
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
BAe Jetstream 41
- Flight
- SA8911
- Aircraft type
- BAE Jetstream 41
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZS-NRM
- Operator
- South African Airlink
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From King Shaka International Airport (DUR)To Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
South African Airlink Flight 8911 was a positioning flight from Durban International Airport to Pietermaritzburg Airport, South Africa, operated by a British Aerospace Jetstream 41, crashed into the grounds of Merebank Secondary School, Durban shortly after take-off on 24 September 2009, injuring the three occupants of the aircraft and one on the ground. The captain of the flight subsequently died of his injuries on 7 October 2009.
Flight
The flight was a positioning flight (ferry flight) from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, carrying no passengers. The three crew members consisted of Captain Allister Freeman, First officer Sonja Bierman, and a flight attendant. Captain Freeman had previously been involved in an accident in which the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander he was flying experienced an engine failure and crashed into a house in Durban. All six people on board survived.
The aircraft, a BAe Jetstream 41 with registration ZS-NRM had only flown 50 hours since its last service. The aircraft had been diverted to Durban from Pietermaritzburg the previous evening by bad weather.
Crash
At around 8:00 a.m. local time (06:00 UTC) on 24 September 2009, the flight departed Durban International Airport. Shortly after takeoff, the crew reported loss of engine power and smoke from the rear of the aircraft, and declared an emergency. Witnesses reported the aircraft flying at an unusually low altitude, and that the pilot was attempting to ditch the aircraft in vacant land surrounding Merebank Secondary School approximately 400 m from the threshold of Runway 24 at Durban International Airport. The school was closed on the day of the accident because it was Heritage Day, a public holiday. The pilot ditched the aircraft on the sports field of the school, avoiding hitting nearby residential properties; the aircraft broke into three pieces on impact.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Investigators from the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were dispatched to the crash scene; the CAA conducted an on-site investigation to determine the possible cause of the crash. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were retrieved and used in the investigation. British Aerospace, the manufacturer of the aircraft, dispatched a team of technical experts to assist in the investigation should they have been required by the CAA.
On 9 October 2009, the CAA issued a press release requesting the public's assistance in finding a bearing cap from one of the engines. The cap, which possibly separated from the engine during takeoff, could not be found at the crash site or at the airport.
On 23 December 2009, the CAA issued the following press release: "In the case of the FADN (Merebank) accident the initial cause appears to be that of an engine failure during take-off which finally resulted in an accident when the human factor involvement resulted in the wrong engine being shut down. This type of engine failure has occurred previously and the cause is known to the manufacturer."
In 2011, the CAA released their final report on the accident. The right engine had failed at rotation due to its turbine seal plate separating and the crew mishandled the situation; First officer Bierman did correctly identify the right engine, but Captain Freeman accidentally feathered the still-functioning left engine, making a forced landing "inevitable."
Text from the Wikipedia article “South African Airlink Flight 8911” (revision 1355381713, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On September 24, 2009 about 0557 UTC, a BAE Jetstream 4100, ZS-NRM, operated by South African Air Link on a positioning flight, crashed shortly after takeoff from runway 06 at Durban Airport, South Africa. The pilot reported a loss of power in one engine shortly after liftoff. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot was fatally injured. The copilot and flight attendant received serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed. There was no fire. The destination of the flight was Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
The South African CAA (SACAA) is investigating the accident. As the State of design and manufacture of the engines, the NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative to the SACAA investigation. All inquiries regarding this accident should be directed to:
South African CAA Ilhaya Lokundiza, Building 16 Treur Close, Waterfall Park Bekker Street Midrand, Gauteng South Africa
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: South African Airlink Flight 8911
- Revision
- 1355381713 · 2026-05-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4698807
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA09WA079
- Event ID
- 20100408X72608
- Case number
- DCA09WA079
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "South African Airlink Flight 8911" (page 24458875, revision 1355381713); merged with NTSB case DCA09WA079 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA09WA079
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "South African Airlink Flight 8911" and NTSB case DCA09WA079, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "The airplane was destroyed."