South African Air Tragedy Takes Lives Of Promising Cyclists | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

 Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Thu, Jan 20, 2005

South African Air Tragedy Takes Lives Of Promising Cyclists

Two Of The Five Lost Were Members Of South African National Team

Two of South Africa's brightest young bicycling stars were among five people killed this week when the Piper Aerostar in which they were flying went down on a deserted farm in the Cornelia District of the eastern Free State.

"All five passengers died," Free State Police spokesman Sam Sesing told the Johannasberg Mail and Guardian. He described the scene as horrible. "Wreckage is spread over a radius of one kilometer."

Cyclists Jaco de Witt and Jaco Odendaal were both members of the South African national bicycle team.

"They both had bright futures and were just all-round good guys," said their manager, Tony Harding. "They were both under 23 and they always called me Pa, so it felt like they were my own children."

There were reports of a heavy downpour at the crash site around the time the Aerostar would have been passing overhead. South Africa's civil aviation authority is investigating the accident.

FMI: www.caa.co.za

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Rutan Long-EZ

He Attempted To Restart The Engine Three Times. On The Third Restart Attempt, He Noticed That Flames Were Coming Out From The Right Wing Near The Fuel Cap Analysis: The pilot repor>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ICAS Perspectives - Advice for New Air Show Performers

From 2009 (YouTube Edition): Leading Air Show Performers Give Their Best Advice for Newcomers On December 6th through December 9th, the Paris Las Vegas Hotel hosted over 1,500 air >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.28.25)

Aero Linx: NASA ASRS ASRS captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community. The ASRS is an i>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.28.25)

“For our inaugural Pylon Racing Seminar in Roswell, we were thrilled to certify 60 pilots across our six closed-course pylon race classes. Not only did this year’s PRS >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Change Display

Headlines Only | Headlines w/ Teasers | View Everything

Advertisement

Top Videos

Airborne 06.30.25: US v ADS-B Misuse, Nat’l STOL Fire, Volocopter Resumes

Airborne 06.27.25: ANN's HUGE OSH Coverage!, NCAR Racing Seminars, JFK Lawsuit

Airborne Affordable Flyers 06.26.25: PA18 Upgrades, ‘Delta Force’, Rhinebeck

See All

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC