The joint operations centre set up to find two aircraft missing near Tzaneen, Limpopo, was a hive of activity yesterday, but cold and cloudy conditions frustrated the search.
Five helicopters, including an SA Air Force Oryx dispatched from the Hoedspruit Airforce Base, lifted off at about 40-minute intervals throughout the afternoon to search the mountainous terrain.
Mashadi Mathosa, spokesman for the Greater Mopani District Municipality, said there had been no indication of a crash site.
The search for the two aircraft, with a total of 14 people on board, was to resume today at 6am.
Yesterday's search and rescue efforts were conducted in an atmosphere of tense efficiency.
Every bit of information that came in to the operations centre was plotted on a map, and co-ordinates of any possible sighting of the missing aircraft sent to a helicopter.
The helicopter swooped down to pick up a team of four rescuers, and headed out to the search areas, where the teams were dropped to search on foot.
More than 100 members of organisations such as the Limpopo Emergency Services, the SAAF, police, the Off Road Rescue and Mountain Rescue units as well as private pilots were involved in the search.
They covered an area of between about 180km² and 210km² of heavily vegetated terrain between Maake and the George's Valley in the Wolkberge range.
Low clouds and heavy fog limited visibility to about 10m, rendering the helicopters ineffective as search platforms, so they could be used only to transport search teams.
"Even with aircraft, the planes are not easy to find," said a team member.
At about 4.30pm, the Oryx left with a team of four search and rescue members on board, taking another stab at finding the two Albatross aircraft.
On its return, rescue team members, many of whom had slept in the veld overnight on Sunday, were fed dinner and coffee.
They were debriefed and had last night to get some rest.
On Sunday, aviation authorities lost contact with the two Albatross aircraft, at about 3pm.
The aircraft were returning to Rand Airport from an airshow at the Tarentaal airstrip, about 15km outside Tzaneen, when contact with them was lost.
Later that afternoon, seven helicopters, including the Oryx, scoured the mountains near Tzaneen for any sign of wreckage.
Yesterday afternoon, rescuers' hopes of finding a site were raised when information was received that a herdsman had witnessed a crash. The Oryx was sent out, but returned without finding anything.
Mathosa said media reports that pieces of wreckage had been found were merely rumours.
Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za
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