BARELY two days after an Air Namibia passenger plane failed to take off following a technical fault in one of its engines, the jet was forced to return to Frankfurt International Airport after one of its engines malfunctioned and reportedly caught fire in mid-air.

Two German tourists, Norman Deus and Franziska Rutz, who were travelling to Namibia for the first time, were on the Air Namibia flight, and upon arrival in Windhoek, they shared their experiences with Informanté.
Both took pictures of the engine and the plane. Here are their accounts.
Norman Deus (24) from Dresden was sitting near the malfunctioning engine.  
On Sunday, March 28 2009, one Air Namibia Flight No. SW 0286, flying the Frankfurt – Windhoek route took off at least 30 minutes after its scheduled departure time of 22h40.  I was sitting on the right side (starboard) of the aeroplane. 
Just a few seconds after takeoff, shortly after 23h00, I heard a series of short explosions like machine gun fire. I looked through the window and saw the night sky brightly illuminated by a darting flame coming from the rear of the outer jet. After a few moments, I heard another explosion.
First, there was deadly silence among the passengers, while the explosions and the darting flames went on for several minutes. The aeroplane was very unstable and I was scared that we would crash.
After a few minutes, the pilot turned off the engine and it stopped making noise. An announcement was made that the affected jet had been repaired the day before and there was a problem with it, and we were informed that the plane would have to land again.
The problem was that the announcements were only made in English and yet the majority of the passengers were German speaking and many of them did not understand what the pilot was saying.
After we finally landed in Frankfurt again, which we managed to do without further incidents, there were roughly 40 fire trucks and at least 10 ambulances on the airfield waiting for the plane to land.
After we left the aeroplane, some buses took us to a hotel near the airport. We departed the next morning and this time luckily everything went smoothly.
Franziska Rütz (24) from Frankfurt did not see the flames or hear the explosion. All the same, she was shocked to hear from fellow passengers that flames had come out of the engine.
I was sitting on the left side (port) of the aeroplane and I only noticed some strong jerking, but no bangs or explosions, so I wasn’t worried because I didn’t realise how serious the situation actually was.
After a few minutes, there was an announcement that the aeroplane was too heavy and that we had to lose some weight. After that, there was nothing unusual for a long time.
Finally, the pilot told us that we had to land again in Frankfurt, but it was hard to understand because he sounded so fuzzy.
One of the stewards later made an announcement in German, which was very late because the old man sitting next to me didn’t understand English at all.
When we finally landed after 2 hours, I was surprised to see fire trucks and ambulances, but they told us that this was standard procedure when a plane has to return to the airport.
I was shocked when the people sitting on the starboard side of the plane told me that there had been explosions and a fire.
Air Namibia yesterday confirmed the incident, saying the plane, operated by Airbus A340, had developed a technical malfunction of engine Number 4, which had been serviced the previous day.
However, the airline did not confirm that there had been a fire in Engine 4 as witnessed by passengers.
“Air Namibia would like to emphasise that it is safe to fly an A340 Airbus, even if an engine develops a technical malfunction,” the airline said in a press release.
“This A340 has four engines and the technical malfunction does not affect the aircraft’s operation or pose a threat to passengers or crew on board.”  
The two incidents came barely a week after Government turned down Air Namibia’s request for a N$180 million lifeline to boost its operations.