Hi-tech search for chopper

2003-05-22 18:57

Bloemfontein - Advanced technology is being used in the search for the helicopter which crashed into Lesotho's Katse Dam this week with five people on board.

George van der Merwe, a spokesperson for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, said on Thursday that deep sea divers spent the whole day scanning the area with sonar equipment.

Due to the depth and lack of visibility in the water at the site of the accident, they had to determine the exact location of the wreckage before diving down.

"In the darkness one can miss the wreckage while walking (sic) right past it," Van der Merwe said.

The helicopter is lying under 98m of water.

Pilot Lieutenant Lererileng Maloi and the engineering manager of the water project, Sethunya Nthako, who was also in the helicopter, are still missing.

Three other passengers, a crew who filmed the dam for a German television station, managed to escape from the sinking helicopter and swim to safety.

Van der Merwe said the divers determined on Thursday that the wreckage might be around 12m from where it was originally thought to lie.

They developed a grid of 300m by 250m, which they were to scan on Friday with real-time video cameras. The cameras, with attached lights, would be lowered into the water from two boats.

If this method did not provide them with the necessary information, they might lower a more sophisticated, remote-controlled camera, Van der Merwe said.

Further options included additional sonar equipment which could be towed behind a boat, or to call in the help of the SA Navy.

Van der Merwe said cost was not at this stage a concern. The Highlands project had promised the families of the missing men that they would find them.

- SAPA