Families consider lawsuit against Sacaa over noncompliance, crash cover-up

Families of three SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) employees killed in a plane crash two years ago are considering suing the organisation after an accident investigation reprot released on Tuesday.

The report blames human error, but also finds the aircraft was not maintained properly and did not have a valid
certificate of airworthiness and should therefore not have been flying.

The accident probe was carried out by experts from the Ethiopian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB). The aircraft, a twin-jet Cessna Citation-S550–SII, owned by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa), crashed into the Outeniqua mountains outside George on 23 January 2020, at a time when the mountain tops were obscured by
cloud.

Captain Thabiso Tolo, first officer Tebogo Lekalakala, and flight inspector Gugu Comfort Mnguni were killed.
The Ethiopians found the crew had “lost control”of the aircraft. However, Lekalakala’s father, August Lekalakala, said the report confirmed their concerns.

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“We disagreed it was due to a pilot error. Sacaa cannot be a referee and a player at the same time.”

Lekalakala said they were not ruling out a lawsuit. “The people who authorised the liftoff must be held accountable because the life of the family is bitter without him, it’s not the same,” he said.

Lekalakala’s daughter was only four years old when he died. “The mother is now playing the role of mother and father it’s unfair,” he added. Captain Thabiso Tolo’s wife, Simnikiwe Tolo, said she thought that the decision of the transport minister to wait another 60 days while he considered what action to take was not right. “It has been
two years already,” she said.

Tolo, who had been married 20 years to her husband, said she was now a single parent of three children due to a mechanical error.“The crash could have been avoided,” she said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za