JOHANNESBURG - The search for two light aircraft and their 13 occupants who went missing in George’s Valley near Tzaneen was put on hold amid poor weather conditions as darkness began to fall last night, Limpopo police said.
“It is becoming dark, so search teams are returning and we will resume tomorrow,” Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said.
Rescue workers said, however, they would continue to search for the wreckage of the two light aircraft which went missing on Sunday.
A search-and-rescue team was in the process of hiking to the area where a Maake community leader said he saw two light aircraft go down.
The route was not accessible by air.
Mulaudzi said the team would set up base camp where they were and would continue hiking today.
Inclement weather hampered most of yesterday’s search.
Mopani district municipal manager Tim Maake said there were two search teams combing the area looking for the two missing planes.
“We have two search- and-rescue teams; one is based at the George Valley management centre and the other is at Maake Tribal Authority. We also have seven helicopters that are assisting with the search,” he said.
The only thing hampering the search had been bad weather conditions, but while the air search had been called off, the ground search continued.
Maake said the Albatross planes had been carrying six and seven people each and were presumed to have gone down in the George Valley area between Polokwane and Tzaneen.
He said they remained positive and calm and would continue searching for the two planes.
“Our search-and-rescue teams are working together with the SA Police Service and the weather service.”
He said the joint operations centre would stay open 24 hours and would be keeping families informed of progress.
One of the passengers was a Durban airshow co- ordinator, organisers said yesterday.
“We will not be releasing a name out of respect for the families,” Durban Airshow spokesman Ray de Vries said in a statement.
“This has really hit the aviation family hard and we pray that they are safe somewhere.”
A number of people on board were involved in the recent airshow held at Virginia.
The planes took off from a landing strip in Tarentaal, a small farming community in Tzaneen, on Sunday and had been heading to Rand Airport in Germiston.
Source: http://www.citizen.co.za
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