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Pieces of stunt plane found
27/09/2006 13:18 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Small pieces of wreckage from the stunt plane which crashed into the sea off Cape Town at the weekend, claiming the pilot's life, were recovered on the shore Wednesday morning, the NSRI said.
Efforts to recover the fuselage of the L-29 Delfin jet, flown by pilot Martin van Straten, would continue, said National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon.
Van Straten, 42, crashed into the lagoon on Friday, during a practice flight for the Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006 expose.
Said Lambinon: "The area and wreckage is being collected for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on-going investigation into the cause of the accident."
He pleaded with members of the public who took away smaller pieces of wreckage to return them to police as "all wreckage found is vital to the CAA's on-going investigation".
Meanwhile surveillance footage of the crash was also being examined for more precise details on where the crash occurred.
On Tuesday, the council for Geo-Science was brought in to use a Side Scan Sonar which plots objects on the ocean floor.
"The most likely sites plotted yesterday (Tuesday) will be dived on today (Wednesday) in an on-going attempt to recover the main fuselage and any other wreckage," Lambinon said.
According to media reports, Van Straten was a member of the Sasol Tigers aerobatics formation team.
He was believed to have proposed marriage to his girlfriend a week before his death.
Police spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said a postmortem on Van Straten would be done later in the week.
- SAPA
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