4Z328 - Incident: Airlink E190 at Windhoek on Feb 26th 2025

An Airlink South Africa Embraer ERJ-190, registration ZS-YAF performing flight 4Z-328 from Cape Town (South Africa) to Windhoek (Namibia) with 49 passengers and 4 crew, landed on Windhoek's runway 26 to the right of the runway centerline and veered further to the right, the nose gear touched down when the aircraft's right main gear already was on the grass. After running about 490 meters over grass the aircraft returned onto the runway center line, rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron.

Namibia's DAAII released their preliminary report stating two runway edge lights were damaged, the aircraft however did not sustain any damage, and summarizing the sequence of events:

While on the ILS approach the crew reported the airfield insight and requested to continue visually. The Tower controller cleared the aircraft to land on RWY 26 with the surface wind at 270 degrees at 07 knots. According to the PIC, at that stage they had the windscreen wipers set on "HI" to clear the rain and there was still no warning of any rain or a wet runway from the ATC. The crew had their weather radar set on 4.0 degrees up and it painted almost entirely red above the field and on the go-around path.

At approximately 100ft the PIC noticed that the aircraft was drifting to the right, he called to the PF to pay attention to the drift and at approximately 50ft he attempted to assist the PF with direct control inputs to assist and correct. The aircraft touched down to the right of the centreline and veered to the right. The main landing gear hit two runway edge lights and thereafter veered off the RWY while the nose wheel was still not down. The nose wheel only came down while aircraft was already on the grass. The aircraft remained on the grass for approximately 490 meters (m) before it re-entered the runway and completing the landing roll. The aircraft vacated the RWY via intersection Charlie to the parking bay.

The Tower controller as well as a Fire truck that was parked close to intersection Echo did not noticed the RWY excursion.

It was still raining when the passengers disembarked the aircraft and busses were used to transport the passengers to the terminal building. No injuries were reported.

The PIC reported a possible RWY excursion and possible damage to the RWY edge lights to the Tower controller. The ATC then sent out a vehicle ("FC") to inspect. FC reported that 2 RWY edge lights were hit and confirmed the RWY excursion to the ATС.

During the post flight inspection, the PIC noticed grass and mud residue on the landing gear. No noticeable damage was observed.
Related Flight: 4Z328, Airlink News