Action down at the Namdeb Airport this Morning!

[Michael Alexander]

SO I took shadow down to the beach this morning , imagine my excitement as I drove past the airport and saw flashing lights everywhere..... at first I thought that it was the diamond run, then I remembered that nobody is buying diamonds anymore..... pulling over, I jumped out the bakkie, armed with my trusty camera, my canon...... this was my break..... my first plane crash.....shipwreck move over here comes Blackhawk Down..... I was about 1km away to the east on the main road to the beach when I took these....I did not want to go any closer, I did not want to get in the way  of the emergency..... I wondered where the smoke was..... Was it Namib Air or a private plane? Was it a Chopper? I pondered the thought of Sean being down there somewhere.....I could see this little airport of ours being on the National Geographic Channel, Plane Crash Investigation...... I snapped away, glancing up for the tail of the plane.... a rotar blade perhaps.....

I headed towards the beach...... for the next 30 minutes as I kept glancing back in the direction of the airport, I could see a helicopter circling the scene...... then heading out over the ocean before making a sharp turn back towards the airport..... "More than likely looking for wreckage, " I thought to myself....

An hour later I headed back to the airport, imagine my sheer disgust to discover , not a single piece of wreckage... no skid marks on the Airport bend.... not a single emergency vehicle  was to be seen, only that lone helicopter was skimming along the barren runway..... What had happened, ...

I found out later that it was an emergency drill, it was reassuring to know that these are still being done, perhaps somebody has tipped them off that it's almost time for a Namib Air plane to come down....

[Michael Alexander]

. Sigh! I could have used shadow as a search and rescue pup..... Ah! Well, there's always next week....

[Paula Gottsch (Willson)]

I think it was more of a case that they had see you on your way to the beach and thought, here comes trouble!!!!!

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

Normally drills are announced, Namdeb seems to have tight lips in all cases 

[Rhona]

What a great story - I was sitting on the edge of my seat................for a second!!! 

[Michael Alexander]

Yes! Indeed, I thought so also.......   

[SandyB]

I slipped off the edge of my seat ..  ( too much red wine ..)   

[Sean]

Not much happens in Oranjemund that Mike isn't in the thick of!!! 

The drills like that are usually unannounced to test the emergency responses reaction time in the event of an actual emergency.  We didn't know about the one today.  I was part of one in Durban when I was flying the medical chopper there and it was such public knowledge before hand that we were waiting in the chopper ready to go at the exact time of the "plane crash".  We arrived on scene, followed by a swarm of ambulances, about 30 seconds after the "crash" which was an old bus that they set alight in the airport perimeter and then had a whole lot of "patients" waiting to be evacuated.  The press and monitors thought that Durban emergency services were the best in the world! 

Well done to the guys today though - it sounds like they did pretty well and the response was very good.

[Michael Alexander]

Now for the real test, try phone the Namdeb hospital at 17h48 on A saturday afternoon to get an ambulance to the airport..... I give it 52 minutes........

Any other takers on a time.....?

[John Creedy]

Nice story Mike.  Nice story and pictures.