Sir Seretse Khama International Airport

Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, located 15km north of Gaborone, is the main international airport of the capital city of Botswana. The airport is named after Sir Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana. It was opened in 1984 and offers limited capacity to handle regional and (especially)international traffic. Nonetheless, it has the largest passenger movement in the country.Airlines and destinationsAir Namibia have been granted 5th freedom rights and will service traffic between Windhoek and Durban. This flight operates between Addis Ababa and Gaborone via Victoria Falls. However, Ethiopian Airlines does not have rights to transport passengers solely between Gaborone and Victoria Falls.Incidents and accidentsOn 11 October 1999, an Air Botswana pilot, Captain Chris Phatswe, commandeered a parked Aérospatiale ATR 42 aircraft A2-ABB without authorization in the early morning and took off. Once in the air, he asked by radio to speak to the president, Air Botswana's general manager, the station commander, central police station and his girlfriend, among others. Because the president was out of the country, he was allowed to speak to the vice president. In spite of all attempts to persuade him to land and discuss his grievances, he stated he was going to crash into some aircraft on the apron. After a total flying time of about 2 hours, he did two loops and then crashed at into Air Botswana's two other ATR 42s parked on the apron. The captain was killed but there were no other casualties.citation needed''citation needed]