SA pilots killed in plane crash

2003-07-20 17:50

Nairobi - Two South Africans, both pilots, were among the fourteen people who died when a light plane crashed into Mount Kenya.

The South African government confirmed that the plane belonged to a South African company, Global 2000. Department of foreign affairs spokesperson Ronne Mamoepa said there were 12 members of three American families on board.

The plane crashed after flying too close to the mountain, Africa's second highest, a Kenian civil aviation official said on Sunday.

Kenya Wildlife Service operations chief Thomas Gesongori said that the plane had been bound for Samburu national park, north of Mount Kenya, when it crashed on Saturday.

A senior police official, David Kimaiyo, said eyewitnesses had reported seeing the plane deviate from the normal air route to Samburu and fly close to Lenana peak, probably for a better view, but instead crashed into it.

Lenana is the mountain's third highest peak at 4 985m.

Kimaiyo said body parts were scattered across Lenana Peak when rescue workers arrived at the scene.

"It was a terrible accident. Rescuers from the civil aviation and Kenyan police found human flesh scattered all over the scene of the accident," Kimaiyo said.

The plane crash is the worst in Kenya this year and comes only three weeks after an American pilot and a Canadian lion researcher died when their light plane crashed and burst into flames in Laikipia district of Kenya's Rift Valley province.

- AFX