Homeless pair save crash pilot
2003-01-06 10:04
Cape Town - Two homeless people are heroes after they rushed to the wreckage of a light plane that crashed on Green Point Common here, pulling the pilot from the debris.
The aircraft narrowly missed the packed Green Point Stadium nearby, packed with spectators for the annual Cape minstrels competition.
Witnesses said the Piper Pawnee aircraft was trailing an advertising banner over the city when it apparently developed engine problems.
Pilot Brett Shaw (36) had serious head injuries.
Kobus Odendaal, the first to arrive at the crashed plane, said the engine "stuttered" shortly before the crash.
"It sounded as if the engine wasn't getting petrol. One could hear the pilot giving petrol shortly before the plane plunged to the ground."
Odendaal said the aircraft's left wing hit the ground first before it rolled and crashed through a row of wooden posts.
He and a friend, Monre Solomons, helped Shaw from the wreckage, fearing it might start burning.
"Petrol poured over our shoes when we arrived at the wreckage. I was scared it would explode.
"The pilot was hanging out of the cockpit and his head was covered in blood. He was still conscious and tried to talk to us, but we couldn't understand him."
Captain Jacques Wiese of Western metropole police confirmed Shaw was in a serious condition in the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital. His condition appeared to have stabilised by Sunday evening.
Wiese said civil aviation experts had arrived in the city on Sunday to probe the accident.
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