Young pilot who died in crash had dreams of owning fleet of light aircraft

The family of a 22-year-old pilot who is one Lwazi Msane-Mchunu say that when that plane went down, so did their child's dreams of owning a fleet of light aircraft to make his family proud.

Lwazi Msane-Mchunu, a licensed pilot, died together with 23-year-old student pilot Nqobile Biyela and medical student Siphesihle Buthelezi when their plane crashed between Mooi River and Greytown after it reportedly ran out of fuel.

Speaking to Sowetan, Mchunu's uncle Sifundiso Mchunu said the family is devastated by the death of his nephew, who he described as a respectful, ambitious and intelligent young man.

“We were still hoping he would grow up to fulfil his dreams of owning a fleet of light aircraft and making us proud. What's more sad is a month ago we were burying his father. It really hurts.”

According to Mchunu, Msane-Mchunu was brought up in Dundee, KZN, and was interested in planes from a very young age and decided to pursue a career as a pilot after finishing matric at Harvest High School in Ladysmith.

“Three years ago Lwazi enrolled at the Eagle Air aviation school in Pretoria where he obtained his light aircraft operating licence a year ago and was in the process of getting his commercial licence by the end of this year.”

Ahead of the accident, Mchunu said the family understood Msane-Mchunu had travelled from Pretoria to Durban on Saturday in the company of his friend Buthelezi and Biyela as well as his colleagues who travelled on a different flight.

He said the five were to travel back to Pretoria on Sunday.

“When they left Durban they did not have enough fuel so they had to travel to the nearest airport, which was in Ladysmith, for a refill.

“They got an instruction that they could not land in Ladysmith and told to go to Pietermaritzburg but they experienced bad weather.

“From there they went to Greytown as it was the nearest airport but there again they were met with a thick fog, heavy rain and winds.”

Mchunu said one of the flights tried to land but ended crashing into a sugar cane field with its two occupants who sustained minor injuries.

However, the one Msane-Mchunu was piloting could not land and reached out for help with finding a suitable landing area but had no luck.

Later, their flight crashed between Mooi River and Greytown after it ran out of fuel.

Mchunu said they had been looking for Msane-Mchunu and the other passengers in his aircraft since Sunday and they were only found on Monday afternoon. 

Eagle Air confirmed to Sowetan that Msane-Mchunu was a qualified pilot to operate the aircraft and that Biyela was a student pilot.

“There was a licensed pilot in control of that aircraft and a student pilot that was still trying to get her licence. That is the correct story; the media has it wrong.”

Eagle Air would not comment further on the incident.

In a separate incident four days earlier, another crash in Lanseria claimed the life of 24-year-old pilot Micyla Steyn.

The recent KZN aircraft incident brings to 49 the number of crashes since the beginning of the year. Nine people died in those crashes, said Sisa Majola, communications manager at the SA Civil Aviation Authority.

Majola said the figures do not signal a crisis as SA’s fatality rate stands at 11, which compares favourably to the global average of 15%.

However, Majola could not provide last year's number of crashes and fatalities, saying it did not have them. 

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