Botswana RJ85 near Gaborone on Aug 26th 2014, engine shut down in flight

An Air Botswana Avro RJ-85, flight BP-209 from Gaborone (Botswana) to Johannesburg (South Africa) with 25 passengers, was about 25 minutes into the flight when sparks were observed from one of the engines prompting the crew to shut the engine down and return to Gaborone for a safe landing.

The airline confirmed sparks were seen from an engine of flight BP-209, the engine was shut down and the crew returned to Gaborone.

The flight is scheduled to be operated by an ATR-42-500.

Air Botswana operates three ATR-42-500s, A2-ABN and A2-ABP were seen on radar one respective two hours after the occurrence, A2-ABO had been flown to Moenchengladbach (Germany) on Aug 4th 2014 for major maintenance and is still there.

In addition Air Botswana operates one ATR-72-212A A2-ABR, which was seen flying shortly after the occurrence, too.

Air Botswana also operates three Avro RJ-85, registrations A2-ABF, A2-ABG and A2-ABH. Flights BP-209 were flown by RJ-85 since Aug 4th other than by the scheduled ATR-42.

On Aug 29th 2014 A2-ABH was being ferried to London Stansted,EN (UK) with intermediate landings at Cairo (Egypt) and Malta (Malta) flying at a maximum cruise level 280.