6 March 1999 – South African helicopter found years after crash.
On the 6th of March 1999, a helicopter carrying 3 passengers embarked on a trip from Port Elizabeth to Knysna. Sadly businessman and pilot, Ian MacFarlane, his wife Francis and his father Boyd didn’t reach their holiday destination. In 2006, the wreckage was matched to that of a green Belljet Ranger that departed on a journey and didn’t return.
Robbie and Wayne MacFarlane, the survived son’s spoke of how the discovery had ended an emotional roller coaster ride spanning years.
Wayne and Robbie MacFarlane paid a sorrowful visit to the crash site near the Diepwalle forestry station in Knysna where the aircraft came crashing down, killing their parents Ian and Francis and Grandfather Boyd MacFarlane.
This is what the brothers had to say:
“To finally realise what had taken place and to see what’s left of your family is very, very hard – especially when it comes to your mom and your dad,” said Wayne MacFarlane, 37, a commercial pilot who now lives in Australia. “From what we observed today, I believe that they all died within an instant of each other – there’s just no doubt about it.” (Avcom, 2006)
MacFarlane revealed that when the official search was called off five days after the crash, he had returned to the area with a helicopter and carried on an aerial search using an infra-red camera for a further 17 or 18 days – a total of 60 hours’ flying time – but to no avail.
MacFarlane said it was quite evident from the crash site that the chopper had entered the forest and plunged to the ground from mist or cloud because of the very high speed at which it was clearly travelling – which could be seen from the force of the impact.
“And we suspect that vertigo, which is a form of disorientation you get when you go into cloud, definitely played a part.”
There was a massive search for the helicopter after it vanished in March, 1999. It was en route from Pretoria to Cape Town and had last touched down in Port Elizabeth when it failed to arrive for a scheduled stop at a Hoekwil guesthouse near Wilderness. Ian MacFarlane, 55, a Pretoria businessman who had clocked 289 flying hours, was piloting the Belljet Ranger helicopter when it went down.
When the helicopter was found by forestry workers during forest clearing operations, the remains of two people – still strapped into their seats – were inside the wreckage, and the remains of a third person were found outside the aircraft.
Robbie MacFarlane, who was 21 when he said farewell to his family at Wonderboom Airport as they set off on their fateful trip, said he felt extremely relieved about finding the remains of his parents and that it had been “very emotional” to see the crash site. “At least we know what happened now – that’s the main thing.”
The civil aviation authorities had not made it compulsory at the time for private aircrafts to have emergency locator transmitters fitted, “which I feel would have saved everybody a lot of anguish and guessing”.
References:
Avcom. (2006). Forums. [online] Available at: http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=8262&start=15 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].