A KingAir plane from South African TAB Charters took off on Monday for the historic flight. It was expected in Ondangwa, Namibia, in the afternoon and will on Tuesday fly onwards to Namibé on the Angolan coast.
After that, a six-hour flight over the Atlantic will bring the plane to St Helena’s Prosperous Bay airport, where its landing, weather permitting, will help test the airport’s systems.
The island has been served by the world’s last regular mail ship and by cargo ships that sometimes anchor there, but the journey took a week from Cape Town and meant that “Saints” have not had regular contact with their relatives in SA, many of whom live in Pietermaritzburg.
The island’s isolation made it a perfect prison, and Britain sent Napoleon Bonaparte there after his defeat in the early 1800s, as well as thousands of captives from the Boer War, and Zulu King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo.
Ma un king Air può viaggiare per 6 ore sull'atlantico ??