Cape Town - The mother of a Cape Town pilot killed when an old SA Air Force aircraft crashed in the Drakensberg Mountains in 2012 wants answers from the SANDF as to why he was allowed to fly when he had been medically boarded.
She also wants the air force to explain why a report on the crash has still not been released and why Dakotas such as the World War II-vintage aircraft her son had co-piloted were still in use.
Co-pilot Major Kurt Misrole (then 32) and 10 other airmen were killed when their plane went down exactly two years ago to the day.
Those who died included the pilot, Zack Smith, and loadmaster Eric Boes, both from Cape Town.
Misrole’s mother Beulah said on Thursday that the investigation into the plain crash has not yielded answers.
“Why was he expected to fly on a mission when he was declared medically unfit for external deployment by the Military Health Unit?” she asked.
She said her son had been deemed temporarily unfit to perform his duties during a six-month period between June 4 and December 31, 2012, yet he was ordered to go on an assignment to fly from Pretoria to Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, transporting, among other things, medical supplies to a then ill Nelson Mandela. They flew out on December 5.
“Who was on the medical panel, when did they convene and on what grounds was his medical certificate revoked?” she wanted to know.
Misrole has also claimed that McDonnell Douglas, original manufacturers of the C47TP Dakota 6840, were not part of the team investigating the crash.
“If these people were the the designers of the plane, then why weren’t they included in the investigation.
“The SANDF can’t go and purge the information in terms of whether the plane was properly equipped regarding safety regulations and the inclement weather that was experienced that day,” she said.
“The Dakota’s temperamental instruments were well known and the possibility that they malfunctioned real.
“Add severe weather to this, including ice and turbulence, then losing control of the plane could have got the best of them. Why was the cargo not sent by road, based on that week’s weather forecast? Misrole asked.
SANDF spokesman General Xolani Mabanga said they would need time to evaluate the questions concerning the investigation.
It was still unclear when a report concerning the cause of the crash would be released, he said.