'Look at the plane, it is flying very low'

2009-09-24 10:11

Johannesburg - Two people were removed from the wreckage of a plane which crashed in Merebank, south of Durban on Thursday morning, while paramedics worked to free the remaining man still trapped inside.

A Sapa reporter on the scene said paramedics used jaws of life to cut them free from the plane which broke up after crashing into a fence at the Merebank Secondary School.

They were rushed to hospital by helicopter for further treatment.

Initially it was thought that only those on board the 50-seater plane were injured, but it later emerged that a woman who had been on the school's perimeter was also injured.

Abel Pillay, whose house is a stone's throw from the crash scene, said he saw the plane flying very low and it looked as though the pilot was trying to land on the sports ground.

"My father said 'look at the plane, it is flying very low'," Pillay told Sapa.

"You could see that the pilot was trying to land in the school ground."

Pillay said there were three people cleaning the street and that one was hit by the plane and "she fell, but she survived".

The plane narrowly missed crashing into houses.

A large group of residents arrived to observe the rescue operation from behind a cordon that had been set up.

Earlier, Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said that the four men on the plane, which crashed about three km away from Durban International Airport, were critically injured.

- SAPA