included Gaborone, Francistown, Johannesburg, Harare, Lusaka, Manzini, Maseru, Maun, Selebi-Phikwe and Victoria Falls. Government corporation On 1 April 1988, Air Botswana was absorbed by the Botswana government as a parastatal corporation under the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications as a result of the Air Botswana Act (1988), and became the nation's flag carrier. Also in April 1988, Air Botswana became the first airline from the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) to establish air links with Namibia. Air Botswana operations are regulated by the Department of Civil Aviation under the Civil Aviation Act (1977). Two ATR 42–230 arrived in 1988, leading to the sale of the Fokkers, and the first BAe 146 arrived in November 1989. The BAe 146 entered service on 12 November on the Gaborone-Harare route, operated five times per week in conjunction with Air Zimbabwe, along with other destinations of the network of the airline in southern Africa. The airline also entered into block-seat arrangements with international airlines, including an agreement with British Caledonian which provided seats on the Lusaka-Gaborone sector of the London-Lusaka-Gaborone service. In December 1992, the government enacted the Control of Smoking Act (1992), and Air Botswana became the first company in Botswana to respond to the act by banning smoking on all domestic flights in 1993, which was later extended to all flights in the Southern African Development Community region in 1995. Whilst the years 1988 to 1993 saw Air Botswana incurring financial losses, in 1994 the government wrote off P74 million of the airline's losses and converted them into equity. Destruction of fleet (1999) On 11 October 1999, the airline was crippled when one of its pilots, Chris Phatswe, crashed an empty ATR 42 aircraft into Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, destroying the aircraft and two more Air Botswana ATR 42s. Phatswe had stolen the aircraft in the early morning, and once in the air had informed the air traffic control tower that he intended to kill himself; and requested by radio to speak to several people, including President Festus Mogae and the airline's general manager. As Mogae was out of the country, arrangements were made for Phatswe to speak to Vice President Seretse Ian Khama, who expressed willingness to speak to Phatswe. After the aircraft circled Gaborone for two hours, Phatswe crashed it at a speed of into the airline's two other ATR 42s, which were parked on the apron,