The 1999 Air Botswana incident occurred when Chris Phatswe, a Botswana

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, killed himself by crashing a plane into the airport apron and a group of aircraft at

Sir Seretse Khama International Airport Sir Seretse Khama International Airport , located north of downtown Gaborone, is the main international airport of the capital city of Botswana. The airport is named after Sir Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana. It was opened in 198 ...

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

, Botswana. He was the only casualty. His actions effectively crippled operations for

Air Botswana Air Botswana Corporation is Botswana's state-owned national flag carrier, with its headquarters located in Gaborone. It operates scheduled domestic and regional flights from its main base at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. Air Botswana ...

Incident

On 11 October 1999, Phatswe commandeered an Aérospatiale

ATR 42-320 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and A ...

, registration A2-ABB, from the Air Botswana section of the terminal at

and took off. For two hours he circled the airport, radioing the

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

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 A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Tebogo Masire, then deputy commander of the

Botswana Defence Force The Botswana Defence Force (BDF, tn, Sesole Sa Botswana) is the military of Botswana. The main component of the BDF is the Botswana Ground Force; there is also an air wing and a riverine patrol contingent attached to the ground forces, with 10 ...

. 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 Seretse Khama Ian Khama (born 27 February 1953) is a Botswana politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018. After serving as Commander of the Botswana Defence ...

, Botswana's then

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

, 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 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Manufacture by Avro International ...

, was grounded with technical trouble at the time. Consequently, Phatswe's actions effectively crippled operations for the

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

Motives

Phatswe had repeatedly threatened airport authorities, telling them that he would kill himself, but never gave a reason. At the time of the incident he was on medical leave from the airline, having failed a physical two months previously and been declared unfit to fly; consequently, he was not authorized to take the plane. Airport security was reported to be lax, and it was said to be quite easy for somebody to steal an aircraft.

References

External links

* () {{DEFAULTSORT:Air Botswana incident Aviation accidents and incidents in 1999 Suicides in Botswana Aviation accidents and incidents in Botswana Accidents and incidents involving the ATR 42 Airliner accidents and incidents involving deliberate crashes Air Botswana Incident, 1999 October 1999 events in Africa Airliner accidents and incidents involving ground collisions

Incident

Motives

See also

References

External links