Pretoria - Three people died when a light aircraft crashed in Wattville, in Benoni, earlier this afternoon.
The plane, which was carrying two passengers and a pilot, crashed seconds after taking off from the Brakpan airfield. The people were on their way to a golf resort in Limpopo, when the aircraft crashed.
Speaking after inspecting the crash site, Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mondli Gungubele, described the incident as devastating.
“While we may not really know what happened here, it may seem that the Austrian couple were probably on vacation in the country. Listening to the story told by eye-witnesses and looking at the crash site I cannot help it but conclude that this was quite a scary and painful way to lose a life,” said the Mayor.
He extended his condolences to the families of the deceased.
“Actually it is by God’s grace that more people were neither injured nor killed because the plane crashed in an open space between houses in the middle of the Wattville township,” he said.
He thanked some of the community members who assisted to retrieve the trio out of the wreckage.
Mayor Gungubele called for authorities to investigate the cause of the accident. – SAnews.gov.za
