Chopper Down in Lesotho Mountains

[Gunship]

" The Pilot was Flying too low " Survivor said ..

A survivor of the helicopter crash at Lesotho's Katse Dam on Tuesday remembers the missing pilot's parka jacket floating on the water.

Jan du Toit, a freelance cameraman from Pretoria, was talking from his hospital bed in the Bloemfontein Medi-Clinic, where he and two other survivors were flown on Tuesday.

The cameraman, sound engineer Herman Botha from Kempton Park, and German journalist Dominik von Eisenhart-Rohte escaped from the sinking helicopter, swimming to safety.

The search by divers for the missing pilot and a fifth person, a senior official from the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency, resumed on Wednesday morning.

Du Toit said the three survivors were working on a documentary about the world's large dam projects and were contracted by German television Deutsche Welle.

They arrived in Lesotho's capital, Maseru, the night before the accident.

He said that while they were in the air he asked the pilot, from the Lesotho Air Force, to fly about 30m above the water, trying to capture on film the narrowness of the gorge in which the dam lay.

Bleeding from a head wound

He believes the pilot was flying too low. Du Toit was sitting strapped into the seat next to the pilot, looking through his camera lens when the helicopter hit the water.

He could not remember how he escaped, only recalling how he swam to the surface.

He saw the helicopter floating just below the surface for about two minutes before it disappeared.

"Dominik (Von Eisenhart-Rohte) saw who she presumably was the unconscious pilot in the water for a short while. He was bleeding from a wound on the head."

Du Toit said it was only an act of providence that a boat was nearby and picked them up out of the freezing water.

"The boat launches on the dam only one day a month to collect water samples," he said.

However, the boat crew did not immediately notice the three, starting to stiffen from the cold and holding on to floating baggage from the sunken helicopter.


"Herrie (Botha) had to shout quite hard to get their attention."

They were picked up after paddling for about 15 minutes in the water.

Du Toit said he doubted whether a mechanical failure caused the accident. The helicopter, of German origin and belonging to the Lesotho defence force, was only two years old.

Du Toit had only minor injuries from the crash.

Botha underwent shoulder surgery on Wednesday in the Medi-Clinic, and Eisenhart-Rohte had a knee operation, according to the hospital.