A convention hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal was marred by tragedy when a pilot and his passenger died tragically in a plane crash on their return home.
The Vryheid Herald reports that the event, which took place over the weekend, drew more than 350 guests from throughout South Africa, and about 120 aircraft.
Following the convention, pilots intended to leave from the Vryheid airfield after breakfast on Sunday morning, but delayed departure due to overcast weather conditions.
Alternate public relations officer for the EAA Karl Jensen said the pilot, whose plane had crashed, departed at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
“He was flying a two-seater Taylor Craft that he owned for many, many years and kept in beautiful condition. The crash took place in an area known as Sangoma Kraal, which is seven nautical miles from Vryheid in a westerly direction. The wreckage was found high up in the mountains by aerial search. He appears to have hit the mountain as he was ascending out of Vryheid,” said Jensen.
Marie Reddy of the EAA said the organisation became aware that something was wrong due to a policy of checking on each other.
“When we started the process of checking on each of the pilots, we couldn’t reach this gentleman. Shortly after that, a farmer contacted us saying he had seen the plane going down,” said Reddy.
At the time of publishing, the pilot could not be named as his next of kin had not yet been found and informed of what had happened.
He and his passenger, Maxine Firsch, both live in Gauteng and were heading to the hangar in Vereeniging.
The bodies of the deceased were recovered with the help of the Vryheid SAPS, search and rescue teams from the Civil Aviation Authority and Air Traffic Navigation Services.
“It is an absolute tragedy for us,” said Jensen. “We are all recreational fliers. We host this convention every year and this year we chose Vryheid. We were amazed at how well organised the convention was. The friendliness of the local people was too wonderful for words. There were about 350 people that injected a lot of money back into the local economy.
“It is terribly sad to have had two confirmed fatalities shortly after such an amazing event.”
