2009 Cessna 208 Caravan accident in Windhoek
Aviation at Work for Air Nave Cessna 208B Grand Caravan and Unknown · The 2009 Cessna 208 Caravan accident in Windhoek occurred on 15 November 2009
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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
- 1
- 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
- Charter & commuter
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- ZS-OTU
- Operator
- Aviation at Work for Air Nave
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eros Airport (ERS)To Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport (LAD)
Aircraft 2 · Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2009 Cessna 208 Caravan accident in Windhoek occurred on 15 November 2009. On that day a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan of the South African Aviation at Work, with which a cargo flight on behalf of the Angolan Air Nave was to be carried out from Windhoek to Luanda with stopovers in Ngiva and Huambo, crashed to the ground shortly after lift-off. Three of the four occupants were killed in the incident.
Accident sequence
At the time of the accident the weather conditions were favourable; the wind was blowing from a heading of 180 degrees at a speed of eight knots. The Cessna's take-off was carried out from runway 19 of Eros Airport in Windhoek. After take-off the aircraft barely gained height. The aircraft's nose pitched up after take-off. The aircraft could not maintain its airspeed and a stall occurred shortly after take-off. The pilot flew a right turn, or, according to the surviving passenger, a leftward spiral. The aircraft then descended until it finally struck the ground at 06:58 local time and was flung through several bushes. The pilot and two passengers were killed in the accident; one passenger survived and was admitted to hospital with spinal injuries.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigation found that on the day before the accident, cargo weighing around 810 kg had been loaded into the aircraft by a handling agent under the pilot's supervision. Before departure on the morning of 15 November, however, additional cargo was loaded on board, including the baggage of the passengers and the pilot. This additional cargo was not weighed; moreover, it had been placed unsecured in the cabin on and between the seats up to the roof of the aircraft. The total weight of the aircraft at the time of take-off had been 9691 pounds (4395 kg). The maximum permitted take-off weight for this aircraft type is 9062 pounds (4110 kg). The pilot had made a fundamental error in his weight calculation by using an incorrect empty weight of the aircraft of 4575 pounds (2075 kg) instead of the correct weight of 5174 pounds (2347 kg).
As a result, the aircraft's maximum take-off weight had been exceeded by 629 pounds (285 kg). Inadequate supervision by the regulatory authority was considered a significant factor in this accident. It was given as a contributing factor that the pilot had been unfamiliar with the airport and the environmental phenomena prevailing around it, since he was carrying out his first take-off from Windhoek-Eros Airport.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Cessna 208 Caravan in Windhoek 2009” (revision 238512993, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Cessna 208 Caravan in Windhoek 2009
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 238512993 · 2023-10-26 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q123184959
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Cessna 208 Caravan in Windhoek 2009" (page 12785239, revision 238512993), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A single-engine Caravan of a small South African operator flying cargo on behalf of another company: a small charter operator's flight. The article: "a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan of the South African Aviation at Work, with which a cargo flight on behalf of the Angolan Air Nave was to be carried out"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.