Chris Phatswe, a 29-year-old first officer for Air Botswana, was grounded on medical leave. At approximately 9:30 AM on October 11, he used his crew access to board an empty, 69-seat ATR 42-320 parked at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone. He started the engines without clearance. For two hours, he circled the city and the airport, communicating sporadically with air traffic control. He demanded to speak to the president, the director of civil aviation, and his own airline's management. He spoke of corruption and his unfair treatment. Authorities refused his demands.
Phatswe then announced his intention to crash the plane. Controllers believed he was headed for the airline's headquarters building. Instead, he lined up on the main runway and descended. He aimed not for the terminal, but for the tarmac where Air Botswana's fleet was parked. He struck a parked ATR 42, then careened into a second. The fuel tanks ignited, creating a fireball that destroyed all three of the state-owned airline's operational aircraft. Phatswe died instantly. No one else was killed.
The event was not a typical act of terrorism or piracy. It was a workplace grievance escalated with apocalyptic finality. Phatswe, by destroying the entire fleet, effectively erased his own employer. The financial loss was catastrophic for the small airline, estimated at over $60 million. Botswana was left without a national carrier for weeks.
The crash exposed severe security lapses at African regional airports, where familiarity often overrode protocol. It also highlighted the psychological pressures and institutional frustrations within struggling national airlines. The investigation concluded Phatswe acted alone, driven by a 'fit of depressive insanity.' Air Botswana slowly rebuilt, leasing aircraft to resume operations. The event remains a bizarre and devastating footnote in aviation history, a case where a single employee, in a single act, attempted to obliterate the entire tangible asset of his company.