City plane crash victims named

THE names of the three people who were killed when a plane crashed after take-off from Windhoek’s Eros Airport on Sunday were released by the Namibian Police yesterday.

The people who died in the crash were the South African pilot of the aircraft, Dhaven Kisten Govender (42), and two passengers, Christian Heinz Schubert (48) and Gernot Zimmermann (19), who were both Namibian nationals, a Namibian Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Kauna Shikwambi, said yesterday.The third passenger, who was seriously injured in the crash, has been named as Immanuel Hilukilwa. He was still being treated in a Windhoek hospital yesterday.The cause of the accident is being investigated by the Directorate of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport.The accident happened at 06h58 on Sunday when a South African-registered Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft took off from Eros Airport on what was supposed to be a flight to Ondjiva in southern Angola.Except for the pilot and three passengers, the plane was carrying cargo that included paint, building material and food.Ministry of Works and Transport spokesperson Julius Ngweda said on Sunday that shortly after take-off the pilot reported that he was having difficulty maintaining the proper rate of climbing. The aircraft then made a turn to the right and crashed to the ground in an open area between Prosperita and Cimbebasia to the south of the airport.The crash was the first fatal aircraft accident in Namibia since a Cessna 210 aircraft carrying five Swiss visitors to Namibia made an emergency landing on a street in Windhoek’s Hochland Park area after taking off from Eros Airport on September 7 last year. One of the passengers of that aircraft died of the injuries he sustained in that crash.