FOUR AIRFORCE CREW SURVIVE HARRISMITH CHOPPER CRASH
An SA Air Force helicopter crashed beside the N3 freeway between Johannesburg and Durban on Friday morning, landing upside down and sending a rotor flying into an animal pen adjacent to a children's playground.
Two of the four crew members suffered minor injuries, Harrismith fire chief Mohlahoana Mokwena told Sapa. They were taken to a nearby hospital.
There were no injuries among about 60 children at the playground.
The Alouette III helicopter had just stopped at the Bergview refreshment stop, where the crew purchased take-aways at a Wimpy, before taking off.
Minutes later, it made what the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) called a "forced landing", and came down on the other side of the freeway from Bergview.
"A board of inquiry has been convened," SANDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Louis Kirstein said.
He added that the aircraft had been based at Bloemspruit Air Force Base in Bloemfontein.
The helicopter was apparently giving a flight display to spectators when it crashed, a witness told Sapa.
"The chopper took a drive around and went sideways ... it just missed some trees ... then it turned around and went to the ground ... and went up suddenly again but lost power," said Jean Smith, maintenance manager at Bergview. "I think they tried to show off," he said. The helicopter then crashed around 100m from the complex, on the other side of the N3. "One blade hit a car on the freeway and spinned into the complex where there were about 60 kids in the playground. "The blade landed inside the animal farm (adjacent to the playground)." Smith said one of the crew complained of a sore back while the other three were walking around. Asked about the accounts of its last flight, Kirstein said that would probably be part of the inquiry. Meanwhile motorists and pedestrians gawking at the wreck were
affecting traffic flow, Andrew Dhebideen, an official from the toll road company N3TC, told Sapa.
"Fortunately there were no incidents," he said.
The wreck lay off the freeway, outside N3TC property, and had been cordoned off by police, Dhebideen added.
He knew nothing of the car Smith said had been hit by the flying rotor.
The Alouette III range of helicopters have been in service with the SAAF for the last 40 years.
They are due for replacement under government's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.
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18 Mars 2005 à 10:52 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
