Page 13 - World Airnews Magazine February Edition 2021

FEATURE

straight. Compelled by new evidence while flying above the N12 highway, flight path of the Cessna as it was taking off.

collected by Bill, the then Minister of more than four kilometres away. The The second investigation concluded
Transport ordered a second investigation second investigation found this was simply that, “the accident was caused by the

in 2007, under the auspices of senior avia- not possible. helicopter cutting in front of the Cessna,

tion experts, led by chairman Gert van der Their fabrication included attempts to forcing the pilot of the Cessna to take

Veer, an ex-CEO of SAA. coerce a number of potential witnesses, in- evasive action that led to loss of control

Years later the original report was indeed cluding the airport manager who later with- and the accident.”
overturned and the pilot exonerated. A drew his earlier statement. Importantly the The dense, 101-page report exonerated
significant moment in South African civil second investigation report found another pilot Lew Jones but it has never been wide-

aviation history, as it seems that the finding witness, John Reeder, who had claimed not ly published or acknowledged by the CAA.

of any aircraft accident investigation report to be at the airport that day, was on the By design or due to incompetence - the

has never been overturned. premises, went to the scene and had re- original investigation report, based on lies,
peatedly committed perjury when he gave 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

World Airnews | February 2021
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