Air Force of Zimbabwe - Notable Incidents and Accidents

Notable Incidents and Accidents

• The Air Force suffered a major setback on 25 July 1982 when four of their eight ordered Hawks were damaged in a sabotage attack a few days after their arrival at Thornhill. 602 was written off, 601 was kept in Zimbabwe for repairs, whilst 600 and 603 were shipped back to British aerospace for repairs to airworthy status.

• 22 July 1985, a UFO was witnessed by dozens of persons on the ground and in the control tower at Bulawayo international Airport. The air traffic controllers watched it hover and tracked it on radar and two BAE Hawk jets were scrambled to pursue it and the pilots described it as incredibly shiny, reflecting the colours of the sunset they estimated that the UFO was travelling at twice the speed of sound.
• More than 20 airspace intrusions were reported in the first nine days of October 1992. The violations appeared to be in the vicinity of Thornhill air base and the violators are believed to be South African transport planes on their way to Angola.
• 21/22 January 2001, an unnamed pilot also wing commander flying a Chengdu F7 became disorientated at night while on the way to take part in a flypast at Laurent Kabila's funeral. He ejected and was found alive in the jungle by Zimbabwean troops five days later.
• 22 January 2001, a Chengdu F7 pilot participating in a fly past at Laurent Kabila's funeral couldn't land as a preceding jet had crash landed and blocked the runway. The aircraft crashed and he ejected safely.
• In 2005, a CASA C212-200 Aviocar military transport plane came down during take-off at the Harare International Airport, killing two pilots – Wing Commander Lysias Charuka and Air Lieutenant Aletini Silaigwana.
• A helicopter came down in April of the same year moments after take-off in Gokwe as the pilot tried to avoid telephone lines. All four on board survived.
• 5 September 2008, a K-8 Karakoram training jet came down near the Thornhill Airbase in the Midlands town of Gweru during a routine training sortie.
• On 22 September 2010 K-8 serial number 2021C piloted by "Venom" practising for the Africa aerospace and defence 2010 display burst a tyre on landing and rolled to the end of the runway at AFB Ysterplaat, Cape town. It took some time to get the runway open again and aircraft in the air at the time diverted to Cape Town International Airport.