The owner of the Durban house into which a light aircraft nose-dived on Sunday escaped injury because he was at a bowling club at the time of the incident, KwaZulu-Natal police said.
Police spokesperson Captain Gugu Sabela said 72-year-old Alwyn Field, a widower, had been bored and walked to the local bowling club when the aircraft carrying six occupants, mainly Austrian tourists, crashed into his lounge and dining room.
”His neighbours phoned to tell him what happened, but he thought they were joking until he decided to return home to check,” Sabela said.
She said the pilot and the father of the two children in the plane — a girl (12) and a boy (10) — were trapped in the aircraft initially. All the victims were taken to the Umhlanga Rocks hospital for treatment.
Sabela said the crash victims were on holiday on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast when they decided to take an aerial tour of the Durban area.
She said the plane had been due to land at the nearby Virginia airport when it crashed into the house in Danville Road.
”To minimise the risk of fire, foam was sprayed over the house.”
Sabela said civil aviation officials from Pretoria were on their way to the crash site to investigate the incident. — Sapa