Chilling video has emerged from inside the Convair 340 that crashed in Pretoria last week showing the aircraft struggling to turn back to the airport after engine problems.
The video, taken on an iPhone, shows smoke streaming and flames from one of the engines, and somebody saying “It’s getting bad, it’s getting very, very bad”.
In the background, somebody shouts: “Make sure you’re strapped in, strap in” just before the planes crashes.
The video continues after the plane crashes into a factory.
Qantas pilot Douglas Haywood and retired Qantas captain Ross Kelly are believed to have been flying the plane and Mr Kelly’s wife was also on board.
All three were seriously injured but the prognosis was said to be optimistic in a Facebook post this week by the owner of the aircraft, Rovos Rail.
The pilots had a combined 37,000 hours flying experience and the news shocked the Qantas pilot community in Australia.
The Australians are among 19 passengers and crew injured when the vintage aircraft, registered ZS-BRV, has crashed during a test flight out of Wonderboom Airport, near the city of Pretoria in South Africa. One crew member, South African Chris Barnard, was killed in the crash and a worker from a factory hit by the aircraft has since died.
According to Aviation-Safety.net the aircraft, which has 20 aboard, had been donated by the owner, Rovos Air, to the Dutch aviation theme park Aviodrome.
According to the website “during takeoff from Wonderboom Airport, the aircraft was seen trailing brown smoke from the no.1 engine.”
“Eyewitnesses also reported observing flames. The pilot flew a circuit for an emergency landing back ton runway 29. It went down about 6 km to the east of the airport. The aircraft impacted a shed and broke up. One of the crew members sustained fatal injuries.”
