Two locked in deadly embrace

2008-10-19 22:38

Lydenburg - Two charred bodies seemingly locked in a tight embrace.

This was the gruesome sight that met rescue workers at the weekend when they found the wreckage of a Robinson 44 Raven helicopter near Lydenburg.

Barney van der Vyfer, 47, his wife, Suné, in her early 40s, and the pilot Leon Degenaar, 38, died when the helicopter fell into a deep ravine on the farm Klipfontein.

The accident happened on Saturday around 13:00 about 20km outside Lydenburg when the helicopter hit a powerline across the ravine and fell almost 100m to the ground.

It crashed close to the Spekboom River and burst into flames. All the passengers were burnt beyond recognition.

A few brochures and a length of powerline lay near the wreck.

"It was chaotic and awful," said Bart de Beer from Medi Response in Lydenburg.

He was one of the first people on the scene.

"The wreck was still smouldering. Apart form the tail, nothing remained."

Shortly before the accident the helicopter had taken off from Lapeng Lodge, a luxury lodge near Burgersfort.

They were on their way back to Johannesburg where Van der Vyfer, managing director of G4 Construction, and his wife lived.

Van der Vyfer wanted to return to Gauteng by helicopter to take a look at a smallholding in Lydenburg that he had recently bought.

The helicopter belonged to Blue Sphere Investment. It left Rand Airport at about 05:00 on Saturday morning.

Later that morning it was used to count game in the Wildebeeskraal area near Burgersfort.

Quintin Badenhorst, co-director of G4, said the company's directors had an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon.

"Barney was a very good friend and colleague," he said.

The charred remains were removed from the wreckage on Sunday afternoon.

They were carried up the steep slopes of the ravine at about 13:00 and taken to the government mortuary at Lydenburg. The remains will be flown to Pretoria for forensic analysis.

Pieces of the wreckage that would be used in the investigation were picked up from the ravine by a Heuy helicopter on Sunday.

- Beeld