Saturday, April 20, 2024

Ethiopian Airlines pilot mistakenly lands at unfinished Copperbelt International Airport

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Ethiopian Airlines plane on Sunday mistakenly landed at the Copperbelt International Airport under construction instead of the near-by Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport (old airport).

The plane’s nonappearance took its original destination in Zambia by surprise. As the pilot informed air traffic control that he was about to land, they told him: “We can’t see you.”

The Ethiopian Airlines plane landed at an airport that is still under construction in Zambia, “by mistake,” a government official and the carrier announced on Monday.

The cargo plane touched down on Sunday at the not-yet-finished airport Copperbelt International Airport, which is currently served by the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport, some 15 kilometers away.

“When he was about to land he was communicating with the radar, and they told him: ‘We can’t see you,'” the Transport Ministry’s permanent secretary, Misheck Lungu, told the news agency AFP. “So he used his sight as he had no control and landed at an airport still under construction.”

Lungu added that no damage had been incurred and said investigators would be releasing a “comprehensive report.”

Though there is no mention of the incident on its Twitter page, Ethiopian Airlines confirmed that the episode had taken place and said an investigation, in cooperation with Zambian authorities, was already underway.

23 COMMENTS

  1. Thank God nothing bad happened and they were no construction equipment on the runaway!!!! That was risky. if you watch air crash accident investigations on channel 181 of DSTV. You will understand want I mean. So what happened? did the fly and land at SMK or proceed to Lubumbashi?

  2. Just goes to show that the communication equipment should be active at this site to guide planes and avoid near misses. Very good test for the new runway anyway.

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  3. When we tell UPND that there is unprecedented development under PF they say nyo. now foreign airlines can not wait to use our state of the art infrastructure.

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  4. CONTROLERS SHOULD HAVE DIVERTED HIM TO LUSAKA
    AND THEY LET AN UNSCHEDULED PLANE LAND ???
    NO DOUBT THE BLAME WILL BE PUT ON UPND BY M0T0R MOUTH

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  5. Really laughable…only possble in the Lazy Lungu era even the construction workers are not wearing hi-vis clothing…this is very serious imagine if the was a construction truck at the end of that run way.

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  6. Ethiopians can’t wait to start the
    New airlines with the Zambians.
    They are ready to mint over the
    New airline to be launched. They
    Can’t wait to start maybe trying
    To feel the New airport.

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  7. If an unfinished airport in Zambia can be mistaken for a finished one, that just shows you the level of development we have. What more when that airport is complete. It wool look magnificent

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  8. An error in flying becomes ECLs fault ..some of you are very f00lish and dull. Your tribalism makes you look so pathetic and then you wonder how you have been losing elections for decades. Stop acting like baboons and you might just see some victory in 2070.

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  9. Zambia Authorities should look at this incidence. Even the second plane wanted to land at the same air. Communication should improve. You cannot have two airports by same name, one old airport S Mwansa Kapwepwe and new S. Mwansa Kapwepwe. Google Earth Map will pick up the two Airports. It’s confusing.

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  10. If the pilot had a proper flight plan and Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe airport has an Instrument Landing System, (ILS) it boggles the mind how this happened. Looks like it may have been ‘visual landing’. Does Ndola airport have ILS?

  11. @tikki
    Not far from the truth of a possible scenario, with these ba PF pompwees…..everything is possible !

  12. Similar incidents happened in India, Scotland and USA. Edgar Lungu must be a very busy president to avoid near misses in these counties weh. The only issue here is the lack of communication at this facility with a complete runway. An aircraft in distress could be guided to land here even at 80% completion so the authorities should be in control at all times.

  13. Thus is CliDoras Slit’s communication equipment she corruptly bought, it’s 15 kilometres skew in terms of geographic coordinates. I just hope next time Jameson Mataware jets into Ndola, his plane lands in a ditch, we shall just entomb fastele fastele!

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  14. Kainyokolola Zulu’s comments above just prove these “Malawans” are really f**ked up in the head because of the rat ? tails they keep on chewing and using as toilet papers. I mean, I catastrophic near miss like this happens and this *****ic SOB thinks it’s tribalism, maybe the mercury vapor from Chelston lab is now resident in his Medulla Oblangatta, afunta galu!

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