This summary overview has been compiled by the SAHPA Safety Manager, and is based on Incidents, Accidents and Fatalities reported to the SAHPA Office during the period January 2019 to February 2021.
- 101 Incidents, Accidents and Fatalities were reported:
- Incidents (64)
- Accidents (29)
- Fatalities (8)
However, many additional incidents and accidents were not formally reported, despite repeated attempts by the SAHPA Office to get further information. Hearsay, gossip, rumours and anecdotes are unreliable sources of information and are therefore excluded from this overview.
Flight Types
- PG Solo flights (54)
- TFI (26)
- Training flights (18)
- PPG (12)
- Hang-gliding (7)
- Foreigners (8)
- Tandem (2)
Location
Incidents, Accidents and Fatalities were spread across the following provinces:
- Western Cape (54)
- Southern Cape (25)
- Gauteng (10)
- Mpumalanga (3)
- Eastern Cape (2)
- Kwazulu/Natal (2)
- Other (5)
Observations
- TFI events occur predominantly at Signal Hill, Lion’s Head and Sedgefield.
- Foreigners account for 5 out of 8 fatalities
- Leading contributing causes of accidents, as submitted by pilots:
- Thermal disturbance
- Strong wind
- Overconfidence
- Inexperience
Data
While there may be learnings from each individual event, the meaningful insight comes from examining the aggregate data to identify trends, and to propose systemic improvements.
Note: some members have pointed out errors in the data. This is due to the quality of data being submitted by members. While there may be occasional errors with dates, the incident statistics are correct.
Should you want to Slice & Dice the data yourself, you may download the data in CSV format. A concise version of the data is presented in this table:
| Date | Site | Cause | Time | Inc | Acc | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8/1/2019 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal | 11:30 | 1 | ||
| 10/1/2019 | Signal Hill | No lift - slope land | 9:31 | 1 | ||
| 11/1/2019 | Sun City landing field | Wind / Thermal, Inexperience | 11:00 | 1 | ||
| 14/1/2019 | Sedgefield | Pilot froze | 15:00 | 1 | ||
| 4/2/2019 | Kleinkrantz | Avoid collision | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 14/2/2019 | Map of Africa | Inexperience, Collision , New pilot error | 12:30 | 1 | ||
| 14/2/2019 | Map of Africa | Inexperience, Collision , Spin, Confused | 12:30 | 1 | ||
| 17/2/2019 | Signal Hill | Heavy pax sitting before take off | 10:30 | 1 | ||
| 22/2/2019 | Signal Hill | Avoid collision | 1 | |||
| 25/2/2019 | Pampoenfontein | Wind/Thermal, Stall, Lee Rotor | 12:08 | 1 | ||
| 27/2/2019 | Pampoenfontein | Wind / Thermal | 11:30 | 1 | ||
| 28/2/2019 | Beach hotel | Negative spin | 11:00 | 1 | ||
| 3/3/2019 | Langebaan | Overconfidence | 13:45 | 1 | ||
| 5/3/2019 | Signal Hill | Rigging error | 10:00 | 1 | ||
| 31/3/2019 | Sedgefield | Confused, Over confidence | 12:24 | 1 | ||
| 18/5/2019 | Shumba airflield | sudden change in wind - 3rd party glider damage | 9:40 | 1 | ||
| 24/5/2019 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal | 15:30 | 1 | ||
| 26/5/2019 | Glen Eden, East London | Equipment failure | 13:10 | 1 | ||
| 6/6/2019 | Bulwer 1000 landing | Inexperience/ Over confident | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 18/6/2019 | God's Window | Wind/Thermal | 10:44 | |||
| 26/6/2019 | Sedgefield | Wind / Themal, Overconfidence | 12:15 | 1 | ||
| 7/7/2019 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 27/7/2019 | Signal Hill | Pax Tripped/ satu just before take off | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 28/7/2019 | Unregistered site 10km west of Thabazimbi (Mountain launch) | Inexperience | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 3/8/2019 | Signal Hill | Other | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 10/8/2019 | Sir Lowrys pass | Wind / Thermal | 13:50 | 1 | ||
| 15/8/2019 | Signal Hill | PAX foot hooked on takeoff net | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 15/8/2019 | Rondenbossieberg | Wind/ thermal, Stall, Filot froze, Overconfidence, inexp, carelessness | 17:40 | 1 | ||
| 19/8/2019 | Noordhoek | Hother - horses on landing | 16:00 | 1 | ||
| 25/8/2019 | Hartebeespoort dam | Inexperience | 7:30 | 1 | ||
| 25/8/2019 | The bay | Wind / Thermal | 13:35 | 1 | ||
| 11/9/2019 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal, strong wind | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 28/9/2019 | Motor and glider caught alight | 7:50 | 1 | |||
| 3/10/2019 | Franschoek | Wind / Thermal, Inexperience | 9:30 | 1 | ||
| 6/10/2019 | Dasklip launch | Inexperience | 15:00 | 1 | ||
| 14/10/2019 | Lion's Head | Wind / Thermal, strong wind | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 14/10/2019 | Lion's Head | Strong wind | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 16/12/2019 | Dasklip launch | Rigging error, Overconfidence, Carelessness | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 25/12/2019 | Signal Hill | Strong wind | 16:30 | 1 | ||
| 4/1/2020 | Cors-air | Wind / Thermal, lee Rotor, Overconfidence, Rigging error | 5:30 | 1 | ||
| 7/1/2020 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal | 11:10 | 1 | ||
| 9/1/2020 | Bench | Wind / Thermal disturbance | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 12/1/2020 | Uilkraal | Wind / Thermal, strong wind | 12:26 | 1 | ||
| 22/1/2020 | Langebaan | 1 | ||||
| 24/1/2020 | Sedge view | Wind / Thermal, Inexperience | 15:00 | 1 | ||
| 25/1/2020 | Signal Hill | Wind/thermal Disturbance | 10:30 | 1 | ||
| 30/1/2020 | Buffalo bay | Strong wind, Inexperience | 9:00 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4/2/2020 | Signal Hill | Semi fog landing | 12:30 | 1 | ||
| 4/2/2020 | Map & Sedge | 4 tree landings | 11:00 | 1 | ||
| 8/2/2020 | Seapoint | Wind/ Thermal, strong wind | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 13/2/2020 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal | 11:00 | 1 | ||
| 15/2/2020 | Signal Hill | Equipment failure | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 29/2/2020 | Map of Africa | Strong Wind | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 1/3/2020 | Table mountain EMP6 | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 15:53 | 1 | ||
| 7/3/2020 | Sedgefield | Lee Rotor | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 8/3/2020 | Bambi | Wind/ Thermal, Pilot froze/ confused, Inexp, carelessness | 16:30 | 1 | ||
| 10/3/2020 | The bay | Not an incident - Pilot was not in airspace | 14:35 | 1 | ||
| 21/3/2020 | Hermanus | Overconfidence | 14:30 | 1 | ||
| 6/6/2020 | Hartebeespoort dam | Inexperience | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 20/6/2020 | Eagles Nest, Rustenburg | Wind / thermal, Inexperience | 14:00 | 1 | ||
| 21/7/2020 | Du Toits Kloof | Wind / Thermal disturbance/ Inexperience | 16:30 | 1 | ||
| 22/7/2020 | Cors-Air | Inexperience | 6:55 | 1 | ||
| 25/7/2020 | Dolphin Beach | Wind / Thermal, Stall, Inexperience | 16:55 | 1 | ||
| 26/7/2020 | Maanhaarrant | Flyin during covid | 10:00 | 1 | ||
| 27/7/2020 | Map of Africa | Inexperience | 10:30 | 1 | ||
| 2/8/2020 | Sea point | Strong wind / Thermal, Strong wind | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 10/8/2020 | Grasslands | Pilot froze/ overconfidence | 16:00 | 1 | ||
| 13/8/2020 | Franschoek | Inexperience | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 13/8/2020 | Holliday inn | Stall | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 14/8/2020 | Uplands | Wind / Thermal | 12:43 | 1 | ||
| 14/8/2020 | Mdumbi | Wind/ Thermal, strong wind,Lee Rotor | 15:30 | 1 | ||
| 21/8/2020 | Jakakalsputz (Henties baai) | Wind / Thermal, Strong wind | 9:00 | |||
| 23/8/2020 | Franschoek | Carelessness | 14:00 | 1 | 1 | |
| 23/8/2020 | Franschoek | Wind / Thermal | 12:20 | 1 | ||
| 26/8/2020 | Piketberg | Inexperience | 12:04 | 1 | ||
| 3/9/2020 | Signal Hill | Wind / Thermal disturbance | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 6/9/2020 | Piketberg | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 12:37 | 1 | ||
| 15/9/2020 | Signal Hill | Top landed on Signal hill | 13:30 | 1 | ||
| 18/9/2020 | Signal Hill | Carelessness | 14:01 | 1 | ||
| 22/9/2020 | Sedgeview | Overconfidence, Inexperience | 12:30 | 1 | ||
| 24/9/2020 | Sedegview | Oerconfidence | 11:00 | 1 | ||
| 24/9/2020 | CosAir | Pilot froze | 6:30 | 1 | ||
| 6/10/2020 | Kleinkranz | Inexperience | 15:00 | 1 | ||
| 8/10/2020 | Sedgefield | Inexperience | 13:00 | 1 | ||
| 17/10/2020 | Porterville | Wind / Thermal disturbance, Inexperience, Carelessness | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 23/10/2020 | Signal hill | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 12:10 | 1 | ||
| 9/11/2020 | Jacques-Paradise ridge | Stall, Inexperience | 17:23 | 1 | ||
| 14/11/2020 | Eagles nest west launch | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 15:00 | 1 | ||
| 17/12/2020 | Grasslands Flying Club | Inexperience | 7:00 | 1 | ||
| 18/12/2020 | Signal hill | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 10:00 | 1 | ||
| 23/12/2020 | Lions's Head | Lee rotor, overconfidence, carelessness | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 23/12/2020 | Lion's Head | wind | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 24/12/2020 | Sedgeview | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 12:15 | 1 | ||
| 29/12/2020 | Sedefield | avoid collision, overconfidence, carelessnes | 12:00 | 1 | ||
| 1/1/2021 | Kleinkrantz Car Park | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 12:48 | 1 | ||
| 3/1/2021 | Signal hill | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 17:00 | 1 | ||
| 6/1/2021 | Du Toits Kloof | Wind/Thermal disturbance | 11:50 | 1 | ||
| 9/1/2021 | Bambi | Overconfidence | 4:30 | 1 | ||
| 16/1/2021 | Hermanus | Wind | 10:39 | 1 | ||
| 16/1/2021 | Lion's Head | Overconfidence | 15:30 | 1 | ||
| 17/1/2021 | Porterville | Overconfidence Carelessness /Thermal disturbance | 11:53 | 1 | ||
| 64 | 29 | 8 |
Process
The process to report an Incident, Accident or Fatality remains the same:
- Submit an Incident/Accident Report
- In some cases, the Safety Manager may contact you (or witnesses) for further information.
The SAHPA Team