Road-plane crash: experts to be called
13 September 2007, 09:44
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By Gill Gifford
The official cause of the accident in which a 1934 canary yellow vintage Tiger Moth plane crashed onto the R553 Grasmere Road outside Eikenhof
on Wednesday leaving two people dead and 23 injured will not be known for months.
Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson Phindi Gwebu said on Thursday morning:
"We are still investigating the accident and will have to call in various experts along the way. But the minimum time we are looking at until completion is three months."
On Wednesday pilot Glenn Simpson ,32, was flying with passenger Johan van Vuuren when he was forced to land on the R553.
Metro police, emergency services and paramedics on the scene all maintain that the exact chain
of events was unclear, but three vehicles were involved in a massive collision.
Van Vuuren was killed in the crash, and Simpson broke his thigh bone and sustained several other cuts and injuries.
"It's difficult to work out, but it seems like the plane hit three cars. One of them was a Mercedes Sprinter bus loaded with security guards. One
of them was killed and several others injured.
An old-shape Mercedes sedan was involved, and that driver was injured and taken to hospital.
And then there was a Mazda Sprinter truck carrying door frames. That driver was seriously injured and air-lifted to Union Hospital in Alberton," said Malcolm Midgley of Johannesburg Emergency Services.