05 Jul 2018

Botswana Defence Force (BDF) aircrafts were involved in eight crashes in the last 10 years, Parliament was informed.

Responding to a question in Parliament on July 3, Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi said of the eight crashes, one involved collision between two aircrafts and six members of

BDF lost lives while six sustained injuries as a result of air crashes.

Mr Kgathi said the crashes and incidents were investigated with a view to determine the cause and appropriate interventions for preventing a repeat of similar incidents.

He said of the eight crashes, six were due to pilot error whilst two are still under investigation.

He further said all those who lost lives in the course of duty or got injured while on duty were compensated, adding that the formula was calculated in accordance with defence force regulations in place and provisions of the Workers Compensation Act.

“The safety of both man and machine is of paramount importance and as a result, the BDF subscribes to the highest safety standards when it comes to the operation of its air assets,” he said.

In this regard, regular preventative maintenance and inspections are carried out on all aircrafts in the BDF fleet in line with the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and the BDF Air Staff Instructions to ensure air worthiness at all times, he added.

Mr Kgathi informed Parliament that during inspections, maintenance manuals were followed with due diligence as stipulated in the OEM publications.

“To augment OEM publications, the BDF use the Standard Operating Procedures to address local conditions with a view to ensure and/or enforce high standards of flight safety in the BDF,” he said.

He further revealed that other precautionary and preventative measures applied were regular on-the-job training and up-skilling through the BDF flying training school, the pilot conservation programmes at the flying squadrons, the technical training school and the technicians aircraft conversion as well as the aviation training institutions abroad.

The programmes are aimed at achieving world class military flying knowledge and capacity as well as to produce and maintain world class military pilots capable of carrying out operations in any environment.

Mr Kgathi was answering Selebi Phikwe West Member of Parliament, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, who wanted to know the number of air crashes including aircraft that crashed; the number of fatalities and injuries.

Mr Keorapetse also wanted to know if the crashes were investigated and causes, formula and laws used to compensate the fallen soldiers and the injured.

He also wanted to know what was being done to avert the disasters. ENDS