Majuba Aviation Pilatus PC-12 crash
Pilatus PC-12 · Impact with the sea due to loss of control from an upset during instrument meteorological conditions
From Queenstown Airport, South Africa to Plettenberg Bay Airport, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA11WA038
- 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
- Final · SACAA final report
- Event fatalities
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 0
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Pilatus PC-12
- Aircraft type
- Pilatus PC-12
- 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-GAA
- Operator
- Majuba Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- 9
- Route
- From Queenstown Airport, South AfricaTo Plettenberg Bay Airport, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
- 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., Non-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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The Majuba Aviation Pilatus PC-12 crash was an accident involving a Pilatus PC-12 operated by Majuba Aviation that crashed on Tuesday 8 February 2011 on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. It was a domestic flight from Queenstown to Plettenberg Bay. The crew had to pass through thick fog and very low visibility at the time of the accident. The aircraft aborted its first approach, as the crew was unable to see the runway. While carrying out the missed approach procedure it stalled due to insufficient speed and crashed into the sea at 16:40 local time with 9 people on board, leaving no survivors. The wreckage of the aircraft was found at 6:00 the following morning.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The investigating agency in charge of the accident specifically concluded that the accident was caused by the aircraft crashing into the sea after a possible upset in flight associated with a loss of control during instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del Pilatus PC-12 de Majuba Aviation” (revision 174163911, 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
NTSB narrative
On February 8, 2011 at 1430 UTC, ZS-GAA, a Pilatus PC-12, operated by Majuba Aviation, crashed during approach to Plettenberg Bay Airport, South Africa. Instrument meterological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot, copilot, and 7 passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was destroyed. The departue point was Queenstown, South Africa.
An investigation of the accident is being conducted by the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority. The NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative as the state of manufacture in accordance with the provision of ICAO Annex 13.
All inquiries should be directed to the CAA at:
Civil Aviation Authority Accidents and Incidents Investigation Division Private Bag X 73 Halfway House 1685 South Africa
Website: http://www.caa.co.za
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del Pilatus PC-12 de Majuba Aviation
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 174163911 · 2026-06-29 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q5656087
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA11WA038
- Event ID
- 20110330X53824
- Case number
- DCA11WA038
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del Pilatus PC-12 de Majuba Aviation" (page 4969549, revision 174163911), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case DCA11WA038 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Accident and Incident Investigation Division final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- NTSB record DCA11WA038: NTSB API eventLatitude/eventLongitude
- 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 DCA11WA038
- Operation
- South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Accident and Incident Investigation Division final report
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Accident and Incident Investigation Division final report
- Ground fatalities
- South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Accident and Incident Investigation Division final report
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Majuba Aviation Pilatus PC-12 crash" and NTSB case DCA11WA038, 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.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- Checked against the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Accident and Incident Investigation Division final report on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Taken from the report: ground fatalities and type of operation. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number and aircraft type.