If you have followed the whole Helibase/Gary van der Merwe saga you would know that it was a Frelon, the only civilian based one invloved in commercial ops, see latest news below, pics are of the actual aircraft.
Cape Town - Four people were slightly injured when a helicopter fighting a veld fire in the Table Mountain National Park made an emergency landing on Monday, said fire-fighting officials.
The helicopter was one of two being used by the government-sponsored Working on Fire (WoF) programme to douse the wild fire in the park near Cape Town.
WoF spokesperson Evelyn John Holtzhausen said the Super Frelon helicopter crewed by four WoF firefighters made a forced landing above the reservoir at Silvermine in the park at about 10:00.
"The helicopter crew of four - whose names will be released - suffered minor burns and one has a broken ankle," said Holtzhausen.
"They were airlifted to 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg. The helicopter was enveloped in flames."
Holtzhausen said he assumed the second helicopter was used to fly the crew to the hospital, about 3km or 4km away by air.
WoF uses helicopters to drop water on fires to help ground crews. Monday's fire was believed to have been caused by a lightning strike during a storm on Sunday night.
Holtzhausen said civil aviation authorities were expected on the scene on Monday to investigate the cause of the incident.
He said the fire was now out, thanks partly to rain.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said the helicopters were collecting water for a reservoir to dump on the flames.
"After picking up a load of water one of the helicopters appeared to lose power and dumped the water before performing an emergency crash landing."
Dollman said Netcare paramedics attended to the injured at the scene before they were flown to hospital.
Here is a pic of the cockpit
