/ 28 May 2004

SA-owned plane crashes in China

A small South African-owned plane crashed on Friday in poor weather in central China, with the pilot, the only person on board, presumed dead, aviation officials said.

”It was a small plane carrying just one pilot. It belonged to South Africa. There were two planes that were in China for an air show,” said Huang Suihua, an official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The plane was heading for Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province, and came down in Hunan province near Dongting Lake, which is next to Hubei.

”They took off from Guilin city. They wanted to land in Changsha [capital of Hunan] but the weather was bad so they decided to go to Wuhan. On the way the plane crashed. The pilot of the second plane reported it to us,” said the official.

”The cause of the crash is not yet known. It may have dropped into the lake because we have been searching for five hours and haven’t found it yet,” he added. – Sapa-AFP