Security has been tightened at Virginia Airport after the Durban Wings Club, which is based there, was robbed on Monday.
Two men held the club’s secretary at gunpoint and made off with about R5 000, said Ray de Vries,
who is handling publicity for next month’s Durban Air Show on behalf of the club.
De Vries said the robbers entered the airport’s main building just before 10am and went straight to the men’s toilet before knocking on the club secretary’s office door on the ground floor, giving the impression they were delivery personnel from a supplier.
The secretary, who did not want to be named and was too traumatised to talk to the media, let them in, thinking they had come for the usual Monday delivery to replenish stock at the club’s bar, but one of the men held her at gunpoint and the other asked her to keep quiet.
“They weren’t in there for longer than two minutes, and demanded the keys to the safe, which they then emptied,” said De Vries. He said they took about R5 000 – the bar takings from the weekend – and fled in a grey vehicle.
De Vries said no shots were fired and no one was injured, but staff were very upset and some were taken home.
The police arrived soon afterwards.
Police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said a case of robbery had been opened at the Durban North police station. He said no arrests had been made, but police would use the airport’s CCTV footage to try to identify the suspects.
With the annual air show set to take place at the airport on July 14, De Vries said the organisers were happy with the reaction time of the police and airport security.
He said security had been “ramped up”, as planes had already started arriving for the air show.
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