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Today in history: A Dakota airliner crashes into mountain
It was operating a service from East London to Durban when it crashed, killing all seventeen passengers on board.
The Dakota was one of the fleet of aircraft used by the South African Airways during the early days of the airline’s operations.
One of the fleet crashed into the Ingeli Mountain in Kokstad on 15 October 1951, killing all seventeen passengers on board.
The plane was en route from East London to Durban when it crashed. It was SAA’s third fatal crash and resulted in the Dakotas being replaced by the Hawker Siddeley 748 turbo-prop aircraft in 1970. By 1971, all Dakotas had been phased out.
Today, South Africa has lower air fatalities than most other countries. This is seen as a positive achievement.
Information sourced from: South African History Online.
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