'Mess' after fatal plane crash
Date: 9 May 2004
Erika Gibson
Pretoria - The parents of two young fighter pilots who died almost five months ago in an Impala accident are still braving "the bureaucratic mess" of the SANDF's administration.
Lieutenants Derik Duvenage, 22, and Andy Martin, 28, died when their fighter-training aircraft crashed just outside Nelspruit.
Their parents have, among other things, been taken to task about the men's "outstanding study loans".
The Defence Force said this past week it regretted the "sad administrative negligence" of the study-loan notices. The parents have already been issued with letters of apology.
This negligence is but one of Jurie Duvenage's concerns. Another is his son's original will and testament.
The SANDF claims there is no will on file for Duvenage. But his father claims his son filled out the standard will when he joined the airforce; this testament was supposedly then filed with all his other documentation. Duvenhage sen. has a copy, but the Master of the Supreme Court has declared it invalid. Then his son's pension pay-outs are also dragging, after the documentation was reportedly "incorrectly filed".
The Defence Force, in turn, claims the pension pay-outs are being delayed due to the fact that Duvenage sen. needed to submit an income-tax number for his son. Derik was not registered, and his father feels this is the responsibility of the Defence Force.
"Because in whose name was his monthly tax paid to the tax man?" Duvenage asked.
Duvenage said the trauma of posthumously registering his son for tax was exacerbated by the fact that there is still no ruling on what caused the accident.
"All you hear is that the investigation has not yet been completed and that it can take up to 18 months," he said. "Then one hears rumours about faults in the plane and that it never should have been flown.
"With all these things one just cannot come to terms with the grief."
The Impalas were immediately grounded after the accident at 85 Fighter-pilot School, where both the men were stationed. They took to the air for the first time last month. However, the aircraft were grounded again last week and the pilots told they could go home until further notice.
News24
