Former Proteas captain Hansie Cronje died in a plane crash in the mountains outside George in the southern Cape on Saturday.
Doctors at the scene of the plane crash have confirmed that former cricket captain Hansie Cronje is among the three dead, his brother Frans Cronje confirmed.
According to Frans Cronje, the Hawker Siddley 748, which left Bloemfontein bound for George around 4am, was unable to land due to poor weather conditions around 6.45am.
It appears the pilot then tried another approach and in the process, the plane crashed into a mountain in the rugged Outeniqua mountains at an altitude of about 1 000m. The crash site was just off the Outeniqua Pass.
Rescue teams recovered the bodies of Cronje, and two as yet, unidentified crew members.
Southern Cape Disaster Management Chief, Patrick Hall, said the three bodies had been accounted for and that rescue teams were on site. All three were dead.
”They are busy up on the mountain ….recovering the bodies. Everybody’s been accounted for… they are getting them out of the area,” he said.
Trevor Davids, of the Civil Aviation Authority, had earlier said that poor weather conditions had prevented rescue teams from landing near the crash site. Mountain Club of South Africa mountain rescue service members abseiled down a crag to retrieve the bodies.
Cronje was returning home for a weekend visit when the accident occurred. He leaves a wife, Bertha.
Cronje (32) made his debut for South Africa in 1992, and captained the national team from 1993 until he was forced out of the national side in an international cricket bribery scandal two years ago.
It was revealed during the King Commision of Inquiry into the match-fixing scandal that he had approached two members of the team — Henry Williams and Herschelle Gibbs — and offered them money to
under perform during some of the one-day internationals.
Cronje acknowledged that although he had accepted money from the bookmakers, he had never actually fixed a match.
He was banned for life from participating in any aspects of cricket in the country.
Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour’s representative Graham Abrahams earlier confirmed the news, saying: ”We have heard the news, we are still trying to recover. It’s a shock”.
Pastor Ray McCauley of the charismatic Rhema Church responded with shock and horror when he heard of Cronje’s death.
Speaking on behalf of McCauley, church representative Ron Steele said Cronje’s brother had called the pastor on Saturday morning to inform him about the tragedy.
”It will be a miracle if anyone survived,” Frans Cronje told Steele.
He said McCauley was shocked about the tragedy and had offered his support to Cronje’s family.
”The pastor said Hansie’s death is a terrible loss to the sport fraternity,” Steele said.
McCauley and the Rhema Church served as Hansie’s spiritual mentor when he was forced out of the South African national cricket side in an international cricket bribery scandal in 2000.
– Sapa, staff reporter