Passenger tried to escape

2008-09-23 10:02

Erika Gibson

Pretoria - One of the passengers travelling in the South African aircraft that crashed in Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday afternoon had tried in vain to escape his fate by jumping from the plane with a suitcase.

But the man fell to his death about 20m from where the plane crashed.

Jacques Fischer, one of the owners of the aircraft, said he hadn't been aware of the fact that the plane was en route to Mozambique, as the plane was administered by someone else on behalf of the owners.

Six people, five of them South African and one British, died in the crash.

They were the pilot, Johan Wessels, 43, and his wife, Louisa, from Kempton Park.

The others were an international expert on the blue swallow and one of two employees from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, reports Bongani Hans.

They were James Wakelin, 36, a biodiversity planner, and Mark Coetzee, 47, head of Ezemvelo's design studio.

Misjudged the range

One of the questions on Monday was whether the pilot had misjudged the range of that particular Piper Seneca model.

An investigation by the Mozambican and South African aviation authorities will now determine whether the aircraft had the required flight clearance.

Fischer was told that the aircraft had virtually no flying hours left and that it was due for a major service on Monday.

Arthur Church, who lives a few metres from where the crash happened in Palmeiras, a suburb on the Beira foreshore, saw the accident happen.

"The aircraft was coming in from the sea. There was no sound and one propeller wasn't turning.

"The pilot seemed to want to make an emergency landing on the beach, but he was still going too fast.

"One man was hanging from the aircraft as if wanting to jump. Shortly afterwards I heard a dull thud when the plane crashed on the sand and overturned.

"When I got there, the man was lying 20m from the wreck. His legs had been badly broken and a suitcase was lying nearby. He was dead.

"Another man crawled out on to the wing, where he also died."

Church said the aircraft had been limping along. There was no smell of fuel after the crash.

The wreckage also failed to catch alight, which supports the suspicion that the aircraft had run out of fuel, Church said.

- Beeld