“There was nothing we could do to save them.”
Those were the anguished words of St Winifreds resident, Hein Etzel, who was an eye witness to a light aircraft crash next to the northbound lane of the N2 highway in Illovo at about 2pm on Tuesday, 25 August, in which two men died.
Tragically two men died after a light air craft crashed in Winklespruit this afternoon pic.twitter.com/vyS6POcJGS
— NETCARE 911 (@Netcare911_sa) August 25, 2015
“My brother Karl and I were driving southbound towards Winklespruit when the plane flew directly overhead and passed in front of us. It was not going fast and was twitching,” said Hein.
Last year the brothers witnessed a light aircraft land in a sugarcane field and when they reported it, a friend in aviation said that’s how student pilots practice their landings.
“Karl said this was probably the same, but I took out my phone and took some photos of it.
The pilot seemed to be following the highway, but then suddenly veered right, hit power cables over the highway and went down.”
The brothers stopped their vehicle and ran across the highway to assist.
“The plane did not explode, but burst into flames. We ran up to it and shouted to see if anyone was conscious. When we got no reply, we decided it was not worth us getting burnt if there was no-one to save.”
Hein said there was a loud whoosh like the fuel tank caught alight, which another witness may have thought was an explosion.
“We got to the scene probably about 10 seconds after it crashed and no-one was conscious. We did the best we could. It’s a pity we couldn’t have done more.”
