Airlink E190 at Hoedspruit on Dec 3rd 2024, impala strike

Last Update: April 18, 2025 / 14:30:41 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 3, 2024

Classification
Incident

Airline
Airlink South Africa

Flight number
4Z-657

Departure
Cape Town, South Africa

Destination
Hoedspruit, South Africa

Aircraft Registration
ZS-YZB

Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-190

ICAO Type Designator
E190

An Airlink South Africa Embraer ERJ-190, registration ZS-YZB performing flight 4Z-657 from Cape Town to Hoedspruit (South Africa) with 58 passengers and 4 crew, landed on Hoedspruit's runway 09 when a group of about 10 Impalas crossed the runway, the aircraft collided with three of them.

South Africa CAA reported: "According to the Airlink safety officer the crew reported their estimated time of arrival (ETA) to the tower and the tower controller tried to dispatch a vehicle for runway inspection (it is normal procedure before landing), but the vehicle radio was unserviceable. The crew decided to observe the runway and could not see any wild animals on descent at 500 and 200 feet above ground level. At 1104 LNK 658T touched down on Runway 09 and during the landing roll the crew saw more than 10 Impalas cross the runway. The aircraft struck approximately three Impalas which were left lying on the runway near a taxiway. The aircraft sustained minor damage to the lower engine cover and vacated the runway at 1124Z."

The aircraft resumed service the following day.

On Apr 18th 2025 South Africa's CAA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

Wildlife incursion on the runway during the aircraft’s landing roll.

Contributing Factor(s)

- Unpredictable animal movement on the runway.
- Limited ATC visual range and runway slope affected the flight crew’s visuals.

The SACAA summarized the sequence of events:

According to the captain (CPT) who was the pilot flying (PF), during approach for FAHS, the first officer (FO) who was the pilot monitoring (PM) reported their estimated time of arrival (ETA) to the FAHS air traffic control (ATC) tower. The CPT stated that the FAHS tower intended to dispatch a vehicle to conduct a routine runway inspection before the aircraft landed in accordance with their standard operating procedures (SOP); however, the vehicle’s two-way radio was unserviceable. Therefore, the crew elected to visually inspect Runway 09 during their approach for landing. The crew reported that they did not observe any movement of wildlife on or near the active runway whilst descending from 500 feet (ft) above ground level (AGL) to 200 ft AGL.

At 1104Z, the aircraft touched down on Runway (RWY) 09. During the landing roll whilst travelling at approximately 130 knots (kts), the CPT spotted a herd of impalas crossing the runway (from the left to the right of the runway). The CPT immediately disengaged the automatic braking system and applied maximum manual braking in an effort to stop the aircraft. However, the impalas stopped abruptly on the runway, facing the approaching aircraft. As the aircraft neared towards them, the herd fled to the right, however, the right main landing gear struck five impalas approximately 500 metres (m) from the touchdown point. The impact fatally injured the five impalas whilst the others ran and disappeared into the bush. The struck impala carcasses were found near the taxiway.