The Botswana Defence Force’s only helicopter, assisted by one from South Africa, was on Wednesday scouring the arid Kalahari Desert in search of missing Johannesburg pilot Charles Wooler.
The country’s director of civil aviation, Olefile Moakofi, said Botswana police, wildlife and medical personnel were also involved in the search.
Wooler’s aircraft went missing between Keetmanshoop in Namibia and Upington, where he had been scheduled to arrive on Sunday.
It was located on Wednesday in the south-west of Botswana in country so remote that cellphone or radio reception is scarce, according to South African Search and Rescue Organisation spokesperson Santjie White. However, Wooler could not be found.
Moakofi could not confirm rumours that a note had been found in the aircraft, saying he had left the plane on Monday morning to walk southwards.
Meanwhile, a group of pilots, including his friend Chris Martinus who had been flying ahead of Wooler in Namibia in another plane, has been waiting for news of Wooler at Upington.
Martinus speculated that Wooler could have pressed the ”home button” in his aircraft and been routed towards Krugersdorp instead of Upington.
”The location of the plane is on the line from Keetmanshoop to Krugersdorp,” he said.
In the event of that happening, he would have run out of fuel, said Martinus.
While Botswanan aviation authorities are leading the search on their side of the border, South African police have been carrying out flying and vehicle patrols on the South African side.
Friends of Wooler’s from Krugersdorp Flying Club had come to Upington to offer their help, said Martinus. — Sapa