Hell pirate
19th Nov 2009, 07:31
One killed as chopper goes down
By: TILENI MONGUDHI and WERNER MENGES
http://www.namibian.com.na/typo3temp/pics/f82536e412.jpg (http://www.namibian.com.na/uploads/pics/crash_1.jpg)Photo: Henry van Rooi
A HELICOPTER training flight ended in a deadly crash between Windhoek and Okahandja yesterday afternoon.
In the second fatal aircraft accident in the Windhoek area in four days, a young student pilot died when a two-seater Robinson helicopter that was on a training flight to the north of the city crashed to the ground.
The victim was a 19-year-old Angolan national, a Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Kauna Shikwambi said. His name could not be released before his family had been informed of his death.
According to another source, the flight instructor who survived the accident is a 24-year-old South African, Ruan van Vuuren. He was being treated in the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek yesterday.
The crash site was found when it was spotted from a Police helicopter that was in the area in an attempt to find a gang of suspects who had murdered a Namibia Defence Force officer during a robbery on the officer and a female companion in the area earlier yesterday.
The Police helicopter ended up being used to lead an entourage of Police officers and paramedics to the crash scene, which was hidden in a dry riverbed in the Okapuka tannery area.
The doomed helicopter – a yellow Robinson R22 Beta II with the registration number ZS-PZI – lay on the sandy riverbank about 15 kilometres off the main road between Windhoek and Okahandja.
The helicopter belongs to a Windhoek-based pilot school, Windhoek Flight Training Centre, and was on a training flight with an instructor and a student on board.
The crash is estimated to have taken place in the early afternoon.
Paramedics hurried to stabilise the surviving pilot and flew him to hospital. The other occupant of the two-seater helicopter died at the scene.
It is not yet clear what caused the crash. The Director of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ericksson Nengola, said he was informed of the accident around 15h00. An investigation into the cause of the crash has started, he said.
Police spokesperson Shikwambi said the crash scene was spotted from the Police helicopter, which was in the area pursuing suspects who had shot and killed a senior military officer in the vicinity of the Brakwater weighbridge.
Yesterday’s crash is the third fatal accident involving a Robinson helicopter to take place in Namibia in a little more than four years.
A well-known figure in the Namibian aviation industry, Danie van der Merwe, was killed on August 7 2005 when a Robinson 44 helicopter flown by him crashed in the Daan Viljoen Game Park area west of Windhoek.
In another crash near Mariental on January 15 2006, a highly experienced helicopter pilot and flight instructor, Doug Castleman, died when a Robinson 22 helicopter in which he and a student were carrying out a training flight plunged to the ground.
The student survived the accident.
Castleman and the student were going through a training procedure in which Castleman was demonstrating autorotation – a procedure that a helicopter pilot has to follow in order to safely land when his aircraft’s main engine fails – when their aircraft fell to the ground.
Also unconfirmed. Caravan down at Eros 1 critical. 3 dead
By: TILENI MONGUDHI and WERNER MENGES
http://www.namibian.com.na/typo3temp/pics/f82536e412.jpg (http://www.namibian.com.na/uploads/pics/crash_1.jpg)Photo: Henry van Rooi
A HELICOPTER training flight ended in a deadly crash between Windhoek and Okahandja yesterday afternoon.
In the second fatal aircraft accident in the Windhoek area in four days, a young student pilot died when a two-seater Robinson helicopter that was on a training flight to the north of the city crashed to the ground.
The victim was a 19-year-old Angolan national, a Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Kauna Shikwambi said. His name could not be released before his family had been informed of his death.
According to another source, the flight instructor who survived the accident is a 24-year-old South African, Ruan van Vuuren. He was being treated in the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek yesterday.
The crash site was found when it was spotted from a Police helicopter that was in the area in an attempt to find a gang of suspects who had murdered a Namibia Defence Force officer during a robbery on the officer and a female companion in the area earlier yesterday.
The Police helicopter ended up being used to lead an entourage of Police officers and paramedics to the crash scene, which was hidden in a dry riverbed in the Okapuka tannery area.
The doomed helicopter – a yellow Robinson R22 Beta II with the registration number ZS-PZI – lay on the sandy riverbank about 15 kilometres off the main road between Windhoek and Okahandja.
The helicopter belongs to a Windhoek-based pilot school, Windhoek Flight Training Centre, and was on a training flight with an instructor and a student on board.
The crash is estimated to have taken place in the early afternoon.
Paramedics hurried to stabilise the surviving pilot and flew him to hospital. The other occupant of the two-seater helicopter died at the scene.
It is not yet clear what caused the crash. The Director of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ericksson Nengola, said he was informed of the accident around 15h00. An investigation into the cause of the crash has started, he said.
Police spokesperson Shikwambi said the crash scene was spotted from the Police helicopter, which was in the area pursuing suspects who had shot and killed a senior military officer in the vicinity of the Brakwater weighbridge.
Yesterday’s crash is the third fatal accident involving a Robinson helicopter to take place in Namibia in a little more than four years.
A well-known figure in the Namibian aviation industry, Danie van der Merwe, was killed on August 7 2005 when a Robinson 44 helicopter flown by him crashed in the Daan Viljoen Game Park area west of Windhoek.
In another crash near Mariental on January 15 2006, a highly experienced helicopter pilot and flight instructor, Doug Castleman, died when a Robinson 22 helicopter in which he and a student were carrying out a training flight plunged to the ground.
The student survived the accident.
Castleman and the student were going through a training procedure in which Castleman was demonstrating autorotation – a procedure that a helicopter pilot has to follow in order to safely land when his aircraft’s main engine fails – when their aircraft fell to the ground.
Also unconfirmed. Caravan down at Eros 1 critical. 3 dead