WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-28 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
A city father’s plan to fly his son to visit his grandparents turned into tragedy when the light aircraft they were in crashed and exploded.
Dietrich Joubert, five, and his pilot father, Wikus, 40, both died and a friend and fellow pilot, Hannes Steyn, 47, was seriously injured.
Joubert was taking off from the Krosa Sand quarry at Krokodilspruit, north of Pretoria, on Saturday when he lost control of the Cessna 210 Centurion and crashed into a tree.
A wing was sheared off with the force of the impact and the aircraft spun around and burst into flames.
| ‘One minute they were going down the runway, the next there was dust and then flames’ |
Tyre marks showed the path of the plane as it tore through long grass and crashed into a tree alongside the runway, its remaining wing wrapped around the trunk.
Debris, including a melted radio headset, could be seen scattered in an area of 20m around the wreck.
The pilot’s burnt body was trapped in his seat.
Joubert’s colleague, Louis Bakhoff, had watched the take-off from a nearby dune and raced to the scene when he saw the crash.
“One minute they were going down the runway, the next there was dust and then flames.
| ‘Something terrible must have gone wrong’ |
“They had not even got into the air. The plane just went straight into the tree.”
Bakhoff said as he reached the burning aircraft Steyn ran toward him screaming for help, his whole body on fire.
“I saw him come out of the plane. There were flames all over him. I tried to help.
“Another friend ran to him while I ran to the plane. I tried to get inside to pull them out, but it was too late.
“It was just too hot. A friend had to pull me back. I wanted to get inside to save them, but couldn’t.
“I tried really hard,” he said.
Joubert’s brother, Roy, walked towards the burnt-out wreckage, but had to turn away. Head in hand and down on his haunches, he wept.
“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that they are dead.”
He said Wikus was a perfectionist when it came to safety.
“He always put safety above everything else.
“He would never do anything unless he knew that all the checks had been done, especially when it came to his family.
“I can’t understand how this could happen. Something terrible must have gone wrong.
“With Wikus piloting the plane, whatever caused the crash must have been catastrophic.”
The aircraft, which is owned by Krosa Sand, had recently undergone a major service and had been flown to Swartruggens on Friday.
Joubert, a qualified microlight pilot, was a manager at the quarry, while Steyn works at a commercial truck sales company in Pretoria.
According to Joubert’s family, the two men were taking Dietrich to Newcastle where he was to have spent the weekend with his grandmother.
Dietrich’s mother, Louise, was at the family’s home near the quarry at the time.
Both the boy’s mother and grandmother were in shock.
“Dietrich was her little blue-eyed boy.
“She loved him so much. He meant the world to her,” said a family member.
“She is heartbroken. We all are. Our lives have stopped,” he said.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said Steyn, who was taken from the scene to Eugene Marais hospital, had been transferred to Pretoria East hospital.
“He sustained significant burn injuries to 70 percent of his body. He is in a critical condition on life support in hospital,” he said.
Steyn’s brother, Gerhard, said his family was in a state of shock.
“Hannes is in an isolation ward. He underwent a skin graft and sustained burns to his lungs after he inhaled aviation gas,” he said.
“We are now praying to God for a miracle. We are praying that he survives. That is all that we can do for now.”
He said his brother was an experienced pilot who never took chances.
He agreed to fly with Joubert at the weekend.
Close friend Werner Schoeman said Joubert’s death was a major blow.
“It is unbelievable. It is just too shocking to think about.
“Wikus was a great guy who always had time for anyone and everyone. He always had a smile on his face,” he said.
Cullinan police station spokesperson Constable Johannes Jaftah said an inquest and a culpable homicide docket had been opened.
He said that the Civil Aviation Authority had also launched an investigation into the crash.