Rustenburg – The remains of Democratic Alliance (DA) deputy leader in North West, Petro Nel, have been found in Nepal, the party said on Monday.
MP and former party leader in the province, Chris Hattingh, said human remains were found in the wreckage of an aircraft on Sunday.
“We had photographs of the wreckage about five weeks ago, another aircraft flying in the area, took photographs,” he said.
“A team of Nepal police recovered the human remains from the wreckage of the aircraft. The aircraft caught fire after it crashed.”
The remains were taken to the police forensic science laboratory in Kathmandu for DNA test and would be handed over to the famile after carrying out DNA cross match checks.
The crashed aircraft was identified as the one Nel, 60, flew in during her sightseeing flight late last year.
Nepal media reported that the aircraft was found in a gorge in a remote area with no human settlement nearby. The aircraft had gone out of contact seven minutes after it took off from Pokhara Airport on October 8, 2015. Contact was lost soon after the pilot informed the tower that they were flying around Sarangkot and heading towards Annapurna Base Camp.
Nel was in Nepal on holiday. She and a Russian pilot, Vallery Buttenin, had taken to the air from Pokhara, for a sight-seeing adventure.
Nel served as a DA ward councillor in the Matlosana municipality in Klerksdorp. She was elected DA North West deputy leader at the provincial congress in Hartbeespoort Dam in May last year.
African News Agency