Kids join search for missing plane
2003-06-20 08:00
Pretoria - Twenty Grade 7 pupils were among hundreds of volunteers who helped search for two missing Gauteng men in the Tanzanian bush on Thursday.
Lourens Louw, 40, and Jaco du Plessis, 31, were last seen taking off from Dar es Salaam a week ago. They had been doing business for Du Plessis' safari company and were returning home to Johannesburg via Mfue in Zambia.
Teachers and pupils in Kisake, near the Selous game reserve in southern Tanzania, heard the low-flying aircraft heading south over the school last Thursday.
Tanzanian civil aviation authority chief Commander Laurence Paul said the two teachers and the class of 14-year-olds joined the search for the Piper Seneca in the bush surrounding the village.
Since the plane went missing, two helicopters, two light aircraft and a microlight have taken part in the search. On Wednesday, a police helicopter searched the bush for hours, but on Thursday air searches were suspended.
Search parties of up to 104 people were, however, still combing each of the five southern districts along the route the men would have taken, Paul said from Dar es Salaam.
Three of the districts announced on Thursday afternoon they had found no trace of the aircraft in any areas where an emergency landing would have been possible.
The aviation authority has already established that the men did not land at any air strips or airports along their route.
Louw's wife, Gina, of Bon Accord in Pretoria North said "it's just a matter of time before they're found".
She last spoke to her husband when she said goodbye to him at Lanseria Airport north-west of Johannesburg. The couple has a son Adri, 8, and a daughter Rene, 10.
"We're spoilt here in South Africa. Everyone walks around with a cellphone and speaks English. It's not the same over there."
But she was not worried about their survival, she said. "After all, Jaco (Du Plessis) has lots of experience in the bush."
Du Plessis, of Benoni on the East Rand, regularly flies foreign tourists to Tanzania for safaris. Louw, a pilot with many hours of flying in Africa, has been working for Du Plessis for a month.