More details avail on Gwanda helicopter crash

Details on this morning's helicopter crash in Gwanda keep trickling in.

Latest information coming from the site of the accident indicate that the chopper was owned by a South Africa based Zimbabwean business man. The business man Mr Christian Ndou Malila from well known Beitbridge Ndou family also runs a cattle ranch in Beitbridge District.

According to reports from the site of the accident, the sole person who was in the plane is believed to have jumped of the plane and died on the spot about 300m before the plane crashed. The fall must have been from a very high distance as the body was broken into several pieces on impact beyond immediate recognition. Sources at the site also state that a Zimbabwean identity card belonging to Mr Ndou Malila the owner of the plane was found in the wreckage. According to reports, the family immediately allay fears that Mr Ndou Malila was the deceased as he is believed to be in South Africa where he runs several businesses.

Gwanda police have taken the remains of the deceased to Gwanda Hospital mortuary where an identification process will take place. It is still not clear where the chopper was coming from and where it was destined but unconfirmed reports indicate that it may have been from near by Gwanda Airstrip on its way to Beitbridge.

No comment is yet available from both the police and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe which is in charge of all air spaces in the country. It will be a question of serious security concern of the country's airspace if the source and destiny of the plane is not known by the aviation authority.