Cape Town - George

On December 7, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Cape Town - George experienced a crash involving Embraer ERJ-135, operated by South African Airlink, with the event recorded near George Western Cape.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

35 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 35 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 32, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is other causes. Flight SA8625 departed from Cape Town International Airport on a domestic scheduled flight to George Airport (FAGG) with three crew members and 32 passengers on board. The weather at FAGG was overcast with light rain, and the aircraft was cleared for an instrument landing system approach for runway 11. It touched down between the third and fourth landing marker. According to the air traffic controller, the landing itself appeared normal, but the aircraft did not vacate the runway to the left as it should have. Instead, it veered to the right, overran the runway and rolled on past the ILS localiser. Realising that something was wrong, he activated the crash alarm. The cockpit crew did not broadcast any messages to indicate that they were experiencing a problem. The aircraft collided with eleven approach lights before bursting through the aerodrome perimeter fence and coming to rest in a nose-down attitude on the R404 public road. Several motorists stopped and helped the passengers, who evacuated the aircraft through the service door (right front) and left mid-fuselage emergency exit. The aerodrome fire and rescue personnel arrived within minutes and assisted with the evacuation of the cockpit crew, who were trapped in the cockpit. Ten occupants were admitted to a local hospital for a check-up and released after a few hours. No serious injuries were reported.

Aircraft reference details include registration ZS-SJW, MSN 145-423, year of manufacture 2001.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -34.1392°, 22.0871°.