Eyewitnesses have claimed that the engine of a two-seater Tiger Moth failed before it crashed into a truck, bus and car on a road in Ennerdale on Wednesday, said Johannesburg metro police.
A passenger in the plane died in the crash, which also killed the driver of the Iveco bus and injured 23 of the 40 security guards on board.
The truck driver was critically injured in the crash on the Old Vereeniging Road, south of Johannesburg at 4.45pm, said Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.
He was airlifted by helicopter to the Union Hospital, in Alberton, he said.
The metro police’s Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the critically injured pilot of the plane, and the driver of a white Mercedes-Benz sedan were taken to the Mulbarton hospital.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said the light aircraft was thought to have taken off from a smallholding in Eikenhof.
He said the plane had been ”totally, totally” destroyed.
He said the names of the dead were being withheld until their next-of-kin had been informed.
Minnaar said Grasmere Road, between the Old Vereeniging Road and the Golden Highway, was closed to traffic.
It would remain closed for the rest of the night, until ”quite late” on Thursday ”because of investigations which need to be done on the scene”.
He advised motorists to use the R554 instead.
Civil Aviation Authority investigators were on the scene late into the night. – Sapa