'Twas the day after Christmas, and up in the air, flew Boeing and Cessna, without enough care...

Over (African) Namibia, an Angolan-based TAAG 737-200 (file photo below), with 50 souls on board, was flying at 11,500 feet, over Windhoek, when a Luanda (Angola)-bound Cessna 404, still climbing after takeoff from Windhoek, somehow got its tail in front of the airliner's wing.

Tough Cessna, cool pilot:

Rolf Traupe, the Cessna pilot flying for Westair Aviation, was alone in the airplane. He said that, at the time of the impact, he hadn't been hit; he felt severe buffeting, and some vibration; so he slowed down, and managed to land safely back at Eros Airport (in Windhoek).

A post-flight examination of the airplane showed it was indeed OK... unless you noticed that the starboard elevator and horizontal stabilizer were badly damaged and partly missing; and nearly half the rudder and vertical fin were gone, as well. His first clue of the extent of the damage was the tower's informing him, "There's nothing left of your tail."

Airline captain: what was he thinking?

The TAAG airliner, though, continued its scheduled flight, arriving at Angola's Lubango airport, on time, but not entirely in one piece. South Africa's ALPA spokesman equated that captain's continued flight, without any apparent damage assessment, with "leaving the scene of an accident." Which, of course, it was...

The crash is being blamed on bad equipment. Apparently, radio communications in the Windhoek area were not coordinated to both pilots (either through oversight or faulty equipment, or a little of both); and Windhoek, although a commercial destination for a number of airlines, has no radar.

FMI: www.ifalpa.org