Flamingo International Airport - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• On November 3, 2003, a Mitsubishi MU-2 twin-engine turboprop crashed while on final after reporting an emergency with its engines. The tower received the message from the pilot, Hans van Gijn, 57, flying aircraft registration number, N630HA, reporting engine problems and that ditching in the sea was a possibility. It had departed Bonaire earlier in the day to pick up a medical patient in Aruba for transport to Baranquilla, Colombia. After dropping off the patient and a male nurse in Baranquilla, the plane headed back to Bonaire. Minutes before it was due to land both engines stopped. The powerless plane glided over the shoreline and almost made it to the runway. It appeared that the undercarriage of the plane snagged on the cyclone fence bordering the shore road and flipped over. There was no fire. The plane was completely mangled except for the passenger compartment. From the wreckage it appeared that the pilot exited through the cockpit door.

• On October 14, 2009, a single-engined private plane, exploded in mid-air while flying over Bonaire. Witnesses near the west coast of the island witnessed a ball of fire falling from the sky at around 9pm. The bodies of the pilot and a passenger were recovered along with bales of drugs. The bodies, aircraft type and drug type have yet to be identified.

• On October 21, 2009, a Britten-Norman Islander BN-2A flight operated by local commuter airline, Divi Divi Air Flight 014 lost an engine while in flight to Bonaire and had ditch in the sea South-West of Klein Bonaire and five minutes out from Bonaire. Pilot Robert Mansell, 32, managed to successfully ditch the plane in the water but was knocked unconscious on impact. The passengers tried to undo his safety harness, but the plane was sinking too fast and he went down with the aircraft, but rescue boats managed to pick up all of the nine passengers that were on board. The aircraft involved was registered as PJ-SUN