SAAF pilot dies as aircraft crashes near Bredasdorp soon after takeoff
Date: 16 January 2008
Natasha Joseph
A SOUTH AFRICAN Air Force (SAAF) pilot died when a single-engine light aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the Test Flight and Development Centre outside Bredasdorp yesterday.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota extended his "sincerest sympathies and condolences" to the family of the pilot who, according to a South African National Defence Force statement, "succumbed to injuries" after the accident about midday.
The pilot may not be named until his next of kin have been informed.
He was to have flown to the Langebaanweg air force base on the West Coast.
The aircraft, a Pilatus Astra PC-7 MK II, was being taken there for routine maintenance, the statement read.
A board of inquiry had been convened to investigate the cause of the accident.
An unofficial website on the SAAF said the crash was the seventh involving a PC-7 MKII Astra since 1995.
The website, which gives a list of all accidents involving air force planes, added yesterday's crash to its list just hours after the accident occurred.
According to a member of the online aviation discussion forum, avcom.co.za, "early reports indicate that the aircraft rolled after getting airborne".
Members of the forum said South Africa was experiencing "a dark time in aviation".
The accident is the fourth involving a light aircraft in less than a month.
A Stellenbosch man at the controls of a motorised glider died in a crash in the Langeberg mountains near Swellendam on Saturday.
Pretoria pilot Dirk Booysen disappeared in his Cessna on a flight from Wonderboom to George on December 26. Booysen's body was found by volunteers 12 days later in the Baviaanskloof mountains near Elandspoort in the Eastern Cape.
On New Year's Day, four people died when a light aircraft crashed in the Swartberg mountains near Oudtshoorn.
Cape Times
