Fighter jet radioed for help

2003-11-14 12:21

Riot Hlatshwayo & Justin Arenstein

Nelspruit - Two doomed fighter pilots radioed for help just minutes before their aging Impala MK1 jet smashed into a highway on Wednesday.

Flight instructor Lieutenant Paul Andrew Martin, 28, and co-pilot Lt Gert Willem Diederick Duvenhage, 22, told air traffic controllers they needed to make an emergency landing at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) roughly one minute before their radio went dead.

The call for help, on a public radio frequency, included a warning that their two-seater jet was experiencing unspecified technical problems.

The fighter pilots told tower staff, however, that it was not yet necessary for KMIA to declare an emergency or to issue a public may-day.

Seconds later, their low-flying fighter skimmed over trucks on the N4 highway in the narrow Crocodile Gorge, before smashing into the rocky verge of the highway in front of horrified drivers.

Both pilots ejected at the last minute, too late to save themselves.

Lt Martin's ejection seat propelled him straight into an oncoming truck, causing severe head injuries. He died minutes later.

Lt Duvenhage appears to have been flung from his ejection seat, which fell onto the highway, but died almost instantly after hitting trees and boulders when his parachute failed to deploy properly.

Their crippled plane meanwhile ploughed through trees within a metre of the busy highway, before hitting a massive boulder and exploding.

"Yes, they did call KMIA's tower to say they had an emergency, but that communication forms part of our investigation and is therefore frozen. I am not at liberty to comment at all," said local military spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Frans Schoombee on Thursday.

Commercial and private pilots who listened in on the distress call speculate that the jet was experiencing engine problems.

"It is standard procedure to get as much altitude [height] as possible, so that you can eject safely. These guys stayed at tree-top level. Either their engines were faulty, or they thought they could land the plane safely," said one pilot, who declined to be named.

Eye-witnesses report, however, that the jet's landing gear was not deployed when it crashed.

A joint SA Air Force (SAAF) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) board of inquiry is probing the accident. The investigation could, Lieutenant Colonel Schoombee said, take up to three months.

- African Eye