News / Regional
Breaking News: Helicopter crashes in Gwanda
12 Jan 2014 at 02:39hrs | Views
Mopane Chopper Crash - Sunday 12 January
A helicopter has just crashed at Mopane Business Centre 5km from Gwanda Town on the Bulawayo Beitbridge Highway.
The private chopper believed to be owned by a commercial farmer who also runs a safari business in Beitbridge crashed into the woodland at about 9am today (Sunday 12 January).
Details of the accident are still scratchy but police and paramedics are currently on site. Police are busy controlling on lookers who are busy trying to capture photographs of the plane while medics are searching for any possible survivors.
As at the time of writing this article it looks like there just may be no survivors from the crash. It is immediately not clear how many people were on board the flight nor where the chopper was coming from or going.
Eye witnesses on site claim that they saw the chopper coming down at a very fast speed towards the Bulawayo Beitbridge road a sign that may be the pilot was attempting emergency landing. The chopper failed to make a landing hitting the ground front first and bursting into flames.
Its is also still not clear if there were any victims on the ground that may have been caught up in the crash. Details are still coming through and Bulawayo24 will remain on the ground to provide more information as it gets available.
UPDATE 10:30am
It is confirmed that there was one person on board the ill fated flight and the person did not survive the accident.
The chopper is believed to have left from Gwanda airstrip 10 minutes before it crashed on its way to the owner's farm about 150 km away.
The pilot is believed to have been a fairly new flier and may have failed to negotiate the chopper in a little rain shower that hit the town at the time of the crash.
More to follow...
The private chopper believed to be owned by a commercial farmer who also runs a safari business in Beitbridge crashed into the woodland at about 9am today (Sunday 12 January).
Details of the accident are still scratchy but police and paramedics are currently on site. Police are busy controlling on lookers who are busy trying to capture photographs of the plane while medics are searching for any possible survivors.
As at the time of writing this article it looks like there just may be no survivors from the crash. It is immediately not clear how many people were on board the flight nor where the chopper was coming from or going.
Eye witnesses on site claim that they saw the chopper coming down at a very fast speed towards the Bulawayo Beitbridge road a sign that may be the pilot was attempting emergency landing. The chopper failed to make a landing hitting the ground front first and bursting into flames.
Its is also still not clear if there were any victims on the ground that may have been caught up in the crash. Details are still coming through and Bulawayo24 will remain on the ground to provide more information as it gets available.
UPDATE 10:30am
It is confirmed that there was one person on board the ill fated flight and the person did not survive the accident.
The chopper is believed to have left from Gwanda airstrip 10 minutes before it crashed on its way to the owner's farm about 150 km away.
The pilot is believed to have been a fairly new flier and may have failed to negotiate the chopper in a little rain shower that hit the town at the time of the crash.
More to follow...
Source - Byo24News
