Buried Chopper retrieved

The helicopter that crashed at a West Nicholson farm on 5 May and was buried to conceal the accident has been retrieved and taken to Bulawayo were further investigations are set to be conducted.

The wreckage was spotted this morning in a Zimbabwean National Army truck in Gwanda.

The wreckage was wrapped in sheet and the army truck drove to the police station before heading towards Bulawayo.

Officials from the Air Force of Zimbabwe and Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) are set to continue with investigations on how the chopper had illegally entered into the country without being detected.

State security agents have come under fire for sleeping on duty with speculation rife that the chopper was used for illegal activities.

The chopper was abandoned by its billionaire owner  Frikkie Lutzkie, a South African underworld business tycoon and former apartheid soldier.  

It's not the first time that 'the dubious' Lutzkie has concealed a helicopter crash.

In May 2012, Lutzkie was apparently returning from a 10-day hunting trip at Askham in the Kalahari when his R50m Augusta A119 helicopter's engine allegedly failed over the Northern Cape, forcing him to crash-land in the Severn area, about 70KM from the McCarthy Border Post near Botswana.

The helicopter, was discovered camouflaged with branches and smeared with mud.

South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority said it was informed of the crash three days after it happened - by the police and not Lutzkie himself.

Zimbabwean authorities are reportedly set to engage their South African counterparts to bring Lutzkie back into Zimbabwe to answer charges of illegal entering Zimbabwe and using its airspace.