1999 Air Botswana ATR 42 crash
ATR 42-320 and ATR 42-320 and 1 more aircraft · Aircraft theft and suicide by pilot
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Aircraft 1 · ATR 42-320
- Aircraft type
- ATR 42
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- A2-ABB
- Operator
- Air Botswana
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, Gaborone, BotswanaTo Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, Gaborone, Botswana
Aircraft 2 · ATR 42-320
- Aircraft type
- ATR 42
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- A2-ABC
- Operator
- Air Botswana
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 0
- Survivors
- Not stated
- 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
- Not stated
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft 3 · ATR 42-320
- Aircraft type
- ATR 42
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- A2-AJD
- Operator
- Air Botswana
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 0
- Survivors
- Not stated
- 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
- Not stated
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 11 October 1999, an Air Botswana ATR 42 piloted by Chris Phatswe, an Air Botswana pilot, intentionally crashed the aircraft into a group of aircraft at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, Botswana. He was the only casualty. His actions effectively crippled operations for Air Botswana.
Incident
On 11 October 1999, Phatswe commandeered an ATR 42-320 from the Air Botswana section of the terminal at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and took off. For two hours he circled the airport, radioing the control tower and announcing his intention to kill himself. The airport was evacuated as a precaution; passengers later reported a good deal of panic in the terminal. Officials in the tower attempted to convince him to land; efforts were led by General Tebogo Masire, then deputy commander of the Botswana Defence Force.
Phatswe threatened to crash it into an Air Botswana building, saying he had a grudge against the airline's management. He demanded to speak to Ian Khama, Botswana's then vice-president, but when officials in the control tower told Phatswe that there were people in the Air Botswana building, he changed his mind. Shortly after being put through to Khama, the ATR-42 began to run out of fuel, so Phatswe carried out a successful landing, but instead of surrendering to airport security, he proceeded to taxi towards the apron at high speed, slamming the stolen plane into two other ATR-42s on the ramp. All three planes were destroyed in a fiery crash, and Phatswe was killed. He was the only casualty.
The three planes were the only operational craft then in the Air Botswana fleet; a fourth plane, a BAe-146, was grounded with technical trouble at the time. Consequently, Phatswe's actions effectively crippled operations for the flag carrier.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1999 Air Botswana ATR 42 crash” (revision 1366719587, 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
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1999 Air Botswana ATR 42 crash
- Revision
- 1366719587 · 2026-07-29 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4594461
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1999 Air Botswana ATR 42 crash" (page 8302479, revision 1366719587)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.