Pilot killed in plane crash
4 February 2010, 07:19
By Mercury Reporters
A Durban businessman and a flight instructor were killed in a fiery blaze when their light aircraft ploughed into the Magaliesberg outside Pretoria yesterday.
The crash occurred in thick clouds yesterday morning as Arnie Lowes, 47, and instructor Piet Kriel, 53, were preparing to land at Wonderboom Airport.
Speaking from Durban International Airport as she was on her way to identify her husband's body in Joburg, Lowes's wife, Danita, said her family was shocked at news of his death.
She said her husband was a trained pilot who loved flying.
"He flew himself on business trips all over the country. Flying was his hobby. Our two boys are just as upset as everyone else in the family."
Lowes had owned the Umhlanga lodge uShaka Manor for the past seven years and travelled regularly between Durban and Joburg.
It is believed that Lowes and his flying instructor, who took off in a Cessna 205 at 6am from Krugersdorp, close to where Lowes's boiler manufacturing business, Marshall Fowler, is, became disorientated in the clouds and were flying just below the ridge of the mountain when they crashed.
Residents on smallholdings below the mountain described how they heard the pilots increasing power when they realised the danger they were in.
"You could hear the pilots trying to increase power to gain altitude and then the explosion. It's a frightening sound which a pilot never wants to hear," said helicopter pilot and farmer Dawid Laas, whose farm is about 500m from the crash site.
"They must have died the moment they crashed. No one could have walked away from that," said Laas's son, Bennie, 16, who climbed up to the wreckage.
Rescuers battled for seven hours to reach the crash site.
"What do I say? We have lost great guys," said Lowes's business partner, Cas Buitendag.
Police spokesman Captain Tessa Jansen, said an inquest docket had been opened and the police investigation would be conducted alongside the Civil Aviation Authority's inquiry.
Kriel lived near Krugersdorp.
A Durban businessman and a flight instructor were killed in a fiery blaze when their light aircraft ploughed into the Magaliesberg outside Pretoria yesterday.
The crash occurred in thick clouds yesterday morning as Arnie Lowes, 47, and instructor Piet Kriel, 53, were preparing to land at Wonderboom Airport.
Speaking from Durban International Airport as she was on her way to identify her husband's body in Joburg, Lowes's wife, Danita, said her family was shocked at news of his death.
She said her husband was a trained pilot who loved flying.
"He flew himself on business trips all over the country. Flying was his hobby. Our two boys are just as upset as everyone else in the family."
Lowes had owned the Umhlanga lodge uShaka Manor for the past seven years and travelled regularly between Durban and Joburg.
It is believed that Lowes and his flying instructor, who took off in a Cessna 205 at 6am from Krugersdorp, close to where Lowes's boiler manufacturing business, Marshall Fowler, is, became disorientated in the clouds and were flying just below the ridge of the mountain when they crashed.
Residents on smallholdings below the mountain described how they heard the pilots increasing power when they realised the danger they were in.
"You could hear the pilots trying to increase power to gain altitude and then the explosion. It's a frightening sound which a pilot never wants to hear," said helicopter pilot and farmer Dawid Laas, whose farm is about 500m from the crash site.
"They must have died the moment they crashed. No one could have walked away from that," said Laas's son, Bennie, 16, who climbed up to the wreckage.
Rescuers battled for seven hours to reach the crash site.
"What do I say? We have lost great guys," said Lowes's business partner, Cas Buitendag.
Police spokesman Captain Tessa Jansen, said an inquest docket had been opened and the police investigation would be conducted alongside the Civil Aviation Authority's inquiry.
Kriel lived near Krugersdorp.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on February 04, 2010
Pretoria
