fly1981
29th Aug 2007, 08:51
Does anyone have any info on the light aircraft that crashed near lanseria early this week?got a lot of friends flying in that part of the world.
126,7
29th Aug 2007, 11:16
By Baldwin Ndaba, Alex Eliseev and Gill Gifford
The wreckage was so mangled that authorities had trouble identifying the make of aircraft.
The pilot is believed to have burnt to death after his plane caught fire when it plunged to the ground just outside Lanseria Airport on Monday evening.
Tuesday morning, Lanseria spokesperson Lize Nel said she was unable to give much information about the crash as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had taken over the investigation.
'We understand that there had been some veld fires in that area'
"All that I can say is that it was a light aircraft, with only the pilot on board, and ... he did not survive. The wreckage was very bad," she said, adding that the cause of the crash was not immediately known.
CAA spokesperson Phindi Gwebu said the plane was a Cessna 206 flown by 49-year-old Niels ver Kerk.
She said investigators were to return to the crash scene later on Tuesday.
"We understand that there had been some veld fires in that area and it is possible that there was a lot of smoke that caused him not to see clearly or become a little disoriented," Gwebu said.
She added that the CAA was not permitted to release the identity of the pilot as this had to be done by the police.
'It clipped the powerlines and went down before bursting into flames'
The accident happened at 6.40pm while the aircraft was on its final approach, about 2km from the airport.
"It clipped the powerlines and went down before bursting into flames," said Harry Annandale, of the Joburg Emergency Management Services.
Netcare 911's Nick Dollman, who said the accident report was received at 6.55pm, told The Star that emergency personnel struggled getting to the crash site.
"We had to travel on the R114 towards Diepsloot and then turned left onto a dirt road and proceeded along for several kilometres before locating the wreck.
"We found that the plane had crashed and caused a large grass fire that was at least three kilometres in length," Dollman said, adding that both wings and landing gear were ripped off the plane and lay scattered around the crash site.
Annandale added that only the remains of the pilot were found on board the four-seater light aircraft.
The crash caused a large grass fire, which was extinguished by Lonehill firefighters.
According to Nel, the plane had flown into SA from across the border but she did not specify from which country.