A de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402Q (Dash-8) was operating a chartered cargo flight supporting the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) on this day, 14th of July, in 2020. The flight departed Djibouti Airport and had Beledweyne-Ugas Khalif Airport (both in Somalia) as the destination. On board the aircraft a crew of three, while the 8000 kilogram (~17.600 pounds) cargo consisted of food supplies for the African Union staff.
The Dash-8 on fire (Source baaa.acro.com ©; unknown)
The crew was aware of ongoing maintenance on runway 22 at Beledweyne Airport, a 2200-meter (7220-foot) gravel runway. To inspect the runway was available a low level left downwind was flown. With no visual obstructions on the runway, a landing was initiated and a normal touchdown followed. At that time the crew observed an obstacle on the runway and attempted to avoid the obstacle by steering the aircraft to the right, this was unsuccessful.
The aircraft collided with piles of sand and rotated around the top axis damaging the right-hand side of the fuselage. Impacting with heaps of construction sand, the aircraft sustained damage to the right undercarriage, left wing, radome, nose wheel and propeller blades.
The nose landing gear in front of the wreckage (Source & © SAAIB)
A fire broke out, which rapidly consumed the aircraft. All three crewmembers escaped the inferno and survived the accident.
According to the Captain of the flight and the operator's General Manager, quoted by a Kenyan website, the aircraft collided with a donkey that crossed the runway as the aircraft landed.
Somalia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (SAAIB) investigated the accident and published a preliminary report on the accident on the 17th of July, 2020. In this report, the root cause of the accident is identified as an obstruction on the runway. The report also gives several recommendations with regard to runway maintenance and obstacles on the runway;
Obstacles must be cleared from runways, and runway conditions should meet acceptable levels
Fire brigades must be available (firefighting equipment/fire truck)
Frequently inspection of the runway surface must be conducted, and the runway must be fenced off.
Runway maintenance should take place according to international aviation standards
The burned out Dash-8 (Source & © SAAIB)
The preliminary report can be accessed by clicking on the .pdf file below. It contains more details on this accident and also 25 pictures of (amongst others) the wreckage and runway condition;
Next time, just go through the donkey. Seriously, I flew the Dash for a decade. Just go through the donkey and you'd still be able to taxi it to the gate for repairs.