Blog

Safomar with Kopter Helicopters CEO Shai Shalem unveils Safomar's new logo At a well-attended function held at the Safomar chalet at AAD2018 on Thursday afternoon, CEO Shai Shalem announced the long awaited agreement between Swiss Kopter and Safomar. The company has signed an agreement for the purchase of two Kopter helicopters to be delivered aroundRead more

This is a ‘high level’ picture of the opening day of this African Aerospace and Defence 2018 exhibition taking place at AFB Waterkloof in Pretoria. The image was acquired by Airbus’s Pleiades satellite orbiting 500 kilometres above Earth.Read more

Generally speaking the overall attendance on day two of this year’s AAD exhibition was a significant improvement over the first day and I expect that final trade day, being Friday will also show improved numbers of trade visitors to AFB Waterkloof. We had many meetings with valued clients today, whilst at the same time manyRead more

Witnesses say that a crop spraying Bell Jet Ranger ZT RBF performed a hard landing due to a loss of power and that the helicopter is a write off. Apparently this accident happened near Centurion when the helicopter was on route from Wonderboom to Lanseria after maintenance.Read more

Apparently performing a downwind take-off Andrew Goodenham (24) en John Jacobs (53) flying an Ikarus Light Sport Aircraft crashed between the two runways. Apparently John passed away due to he severity of his wounds, whilst there is no update on Andrew’s condition. The Ikarus with a 912 ULS is a very capable and docile aircraft.Read more

Perhaps the biggest single problem that the organisers have with staging Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibitions is with the Department of Defence’s unfriendly and frankly obnoxious military personnel who are determined on destroying any credibility that this biannual exhibition may have. There are many individuals, including me who have tried their hardest to ensure thatRead more

Bad few days for South African Aviation Witnessed by Charlie Hugo During the 2018 Air Power Capability demonstration held at the Roodevaal bombing range, a SAAF Oryx helicopter was involved in a hard-landing incident.  The incident occurred during a troop-insertion exercise and the cause of the incident is still undetermined.  The helicopter impacted the groundRead more

Recently British Airways (UK) suffered the most serious data breach in over 20 years, since the airline has operated online. Hundreds of thousands of its customers’ credit card details were stolen from its website and app over a two-week period. Forget tackling a major public relations disaster; BA has landed in hot water not onlyRead more

Qantas flight QF9 to Heathrow was almost 1,000 miles into its 9,000-mile journey, with passengers settling down for a very long overnight trip, when a man in the economy cabin, believed to be aged about 30, suddenly stood up and started shouting. One passenger described him acting in “an extremely aggressive manner”. It was reportedRead more

On 10 September traffic was completely interrupted at Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport (LYS), in France, after a car chase between a man and the police on the runways. The chase started when police tried to control the car, a Mercedes registered in Luxembourg, after reports that it was driving at high speed on a highway. TheRead more