News24 article
Kosta's last flight a mercy one
30/06/2004
Johannesburg - Kosta Marcandonatos's last flight was to help a fellow human in desperate need.
His mother, Bettie Marcandonatos, of Sasolburg told on Wednesday how 33-year-old Kosta died in a plane crash in Vilancoulos, Mozambique on Monday.
"He knew the aircraft and the runway quite well and knew it was wet.
But, there was a man in Pemba who had broken his neck and had to get to a hospital."
The King 200-aircraft carrying Marcandonatos and 23-year-old Phillip van Zyl, an aviation instructor from the Academy for Aviation and Technology at Hoërskool Waterkloof, hit trees at high speed at the end of the runway while it was taking off.
Both men died in the crash.
It is believed the aircraft could not build up enough speed because of the runway's soft soil.
"He (Kosta) had 5 000 flying hours and knew that plane like the palm of his hand. I heard he didn't want to do the flight," his mother said.
Her son had been 'lent' to her for four years
"But, typically Kosta - I have known him like this for his whole life - he put his fellow humans first. It was a mercy flight - the man in Pemba had to get to a hospital."
Marcandatos and Van Zyl dropped six passengers and were taking off again when the accident happened.
Bettie said her son had been "lent" to her for the last four years.
He nearly died in Botswana in March 2002 when his Cessna 414 crashed with him and four passengers into a wooded area about 110km from Maun.
At the time, he told Beeld how he and one of the passengers walked 100km in 30 hours to get help, while the other three passengers remained with the wrecked plane in the hope of being saved.
Mosquitoes swarmed on them in the bitter cold at night, and by day they obtained water from elephant dung in excrutiating heat.
"It is now as if it has become very clear in my heart that the Lord says: 'You begged him from me when he was actually mine. I lent him to you for four years - he is now mine'."