Pilot 'wouldn't take any chances'
2009-01-12 09:37
Erika Gibson
Johannesburg - An extended search for a missing pilot by three helicopters, three planes, the Mountain Club of South Africa and his relatives, continued late on Sunday.
Chris Combrinck, 52, a property developer from Roodepoort, took off from his game farm, Koringkoppie in the Dwaalboom region of Limpopo, on Saturday afternoon.
He was supposed to land half an hour later at Lanseria Airport outside Johannesburg, but never arrived.
On Sunday afternoon, his wife Alet and their three children joined the search.
Santjie White, air search co-ordinator at the SA Search and Rescue Organisation in Johannesburg, said poor visibility and clouds had hampered the search on Saturday.
"We lost Combrinck's plane on the radar about 27km northeast of Pilanesberg in North West," she said.
"But that is a bad radar reception area and it doesn't mean that he disappeared in this region," added White.
Air search
An Oryx helicopter from the air force was sent to the last radar position on Saturday afternoon, but couldn't find anything.
Two air force Agusta helicopters, a Squirrel police helicopter and three private planes searched beyond the original search area, to the south of the Magaliesberg Ridge.
Police searched on the ground throughout Saturday night, without finding any sign of Combrinck or his plane.
"A pilot who flew about 18km behind Combrinck on Saturday, had swerved off to Pilanesberg due to the bad weather and took a rented car back to Johannesburg," said White.
Combrinck's brother Francois said he had taken off at about 12:30 on Saturday afternoon.
Bad weather
Before taking off, the control tower at Lanseria had assured Combrinck that the weather would be good enough for one hour of flying. According to his brother, he didn't have the instrument grading for flying at night or in bad weather using only the plane's instruments.
"My brother wouldn't have taken chances. He said if the weather became any worse, he would land at Brits."
Combrinck did not hand in a written flight plan as he would, according to his brother, fly in a general aviation area and had passed on his flight plan over the radio to Lanseria's control tower.
"The last radar position showed that he was exactly on course."
- Beeld