Page 12 - World Airnews Magazine February Edition 2021
P. 12
FEATURE FEATURE
THE SYFERFONTEIN CRASH: straight. Compelled by new evidence while flying above the N12 highway, flight path of the Cessna as it was taking off.
more than four kilometres away. The
The second investigation concluded
collected by Bill, the then Minister of
Transport ordered a second investigation second investigation found this was simply that, “the accident was caused by the
helicopter cutting in front of the Cessna,
not possible.
in 2007, under the auspices of senior avia-
THE TRUTH BE TOLD tion experts, led by chairman Gert van der coerce a number of potential witnesses, in- forcing the pilot of the Cessna to take
Their fabrication included attempts to
evasive action that led to loss of control
Veer, an ex-CEO of SAA.
and the accident.”
cluding the airport manager who later with-
Years later the original report was indeed
EXCLUSIVE overturned and the pilot exonerated. A drew his earlier statement. Importantly the pilot Lew Jones but it has never been wide-
The dense, 101-page report exonerated
significant moment in South African civil
second investigation report found another
ly published or acknowledged by the CAA.
witness, John Reeder, who had claimed not
aviation history, as it seems that the finding
to be at the airport that day, was on the
of any aircraft accident investigation report
By design or due to incompetence - the
premises, went to the scene and had re-
has never been overturned.
peatedly committed perjury when he gave original investigation report, based on lies,
cover-ups and perjury, remained on the
LIES AND COVER UPS his witness statements. CAA website for almost 20 years, in the
Among the key findings of the second Another key finding was that the investi- public domain for all who chose to read it
report concluded in 2009 was that a gating officer in charge of the first accident as ‘the truth’.
number of witnesses had lied, in particu- investigation on behalf of the CAA later ad- Now more recently two of the families
lar that the airport manager who claimed mitted he relied almost exclusively on the involved only discovered the existence of
to have witnessed the accident, was in witness statements of the two helicopter the second investigation earlier last year.
fact drinking coffee in the clubhouse pilots and the airport manager in deter- They discovered the agonising truth that
when it happened. mining the cause of the accident, which he their sons died while taking evasive action
Perhaps most distressing of all, the declared to be pilot error. to save the lives of the men on board the
helicopter pilot and his trainee pilot, both Crucially, a third person on board the helicopter. A truth kept away from them for
of whom earlier claimed to have witnessed helicopter, never interviewed as part almost two decades.
the accident from several miles away, were of the first investigation brought new On the other side of the finding, the two
also found to have lied. information to light – that the helicopter helicopter pilots, whose negligence was
In fact it has emerged that after landing had actually landed at Syferfontein earlier found to be the only probable cause of the
at the accident scene, looking on as the as the pilot and his trainee – Stephan Bos- accident, have never been held to account.
three young men perished in the blaze, man and Rob Fenenga – wanted to Hansie De Lange’s family would like to
the two helicopter pilots began planning buy cooldrinks. ensure that he did not die in vain and that
the fabrication that they saw the accident They had then taken off directly in the the safety recommendations of the second
More than 20 years ago three young
t started out as an ordinary training flight
men - Llewellyn Jones, Johan Kotze Inear Johannesburg, South Africa, Llewellyn
and Hansie de Lange - died in a Jones was instructing Johan Kotze and Hansie
de Lange was in the back seat - a passenger on
plane crash just south of Lenasia, the day. In a series of fatal happenings all three
Johannesburg, South Africa. A botched died in a crash at Syferfontien airport, Lenasia
south of Johannesburg.
first investigation by the CAA, led to a Liezl takes up the story in her own words:
“23 November 2020 marked the 20th anniver-
second - now Hansie’s family members sary of the death of three young men - Llewellyn
want to know why they were never Jones, Hansie de Lange and Johan Kotze - when
the Cessna 185 light aircraft they were flying,
informed about it’s findings. crashed at Syferfontein Airport. Since that fate-
Liezl Hamman, Hansie’s sister ful day, the three families affected have endured
the most agonising pain and despair.
provided this piece exclusively to World The loss of lives of these three young men
Airnews magazine. have been compounded by the fact that the
first investigation into the accident by the Civil
Aviation Authority (CAA), concluded on 13 May
2002, that the pilot was at fault.
So outraged by the report Llewellyn’s father,
a retired SAA captain, Bill Jones launched a
vigorous campaign to have the investigation
re-opened in an attempt to set the record
World Airnews | February 2021 World Airnews | February 2021
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