A city doctor and his nursing assistant had a narrow escape when he was forced to perform an emergency landing in his light aircraft at Wonderboom Airport following an apparent landing gear failure.
Urologist Dr Francois Boezaart and Cowie Swart had just taken off from Kittyhawk Aerodrome near Boschkop in his Seneca twin propeller aircraft to fly to Tzaneen for a monthly patient visit when he noticed the aircraft's left wheel was not retracting.
Despite attempts to lower and retract the wheels, the left wheel refused to move into the lock position and remained partially suspended.
Boezaart, who owns the plane with his partner Dr Cobus Kotze, radioed for help and flied to Wonderboom Airport. Performing a slow flypast past the Wonderboom Airport tower, Boezaart was told that the wheel was indeed stuck.
With too much fuel onboard for a safe landing, Boezaart had to fly in holding pattern to burn off the excess fuel.
Coming in to land, Boezaart performed a wheels-up landing on the runway where he was met by dozens of emergency personnel, including fire-fighters who sprayed the aircraft's engines with foam to prevent a fire.
A relieved Boezaart said while he had not panicked it had been a stressful two hours.
"I knew that once we reached Wonderboom Airport we would be all right because of all the emergency staff, but until we were able to land it was a very worrying time," he said.
Boezaart said it was extremely fortunate that neither he nor Swart was injured during the landing, adding that they were extremely relieved when they were able to get out of the plane.
He said it was still not known what had caused the landing gear to jam, adding that it would form part of the investigation.
Staff at Wonderboom Airport declined to comment on the emergency landing.