Heli crash pilot’s condition ‘stable’

THE flight instructor who survived a helicopter crash in which a student pilot was killed near Windhoek on Wednesday was reported to be in a stable condition yesterday.

Flight instructor Rohann van Vuren was in a stable condition, undergoing checks to see if he sustained any internal injuries, before he was to be discharged from hospital, Renée Hiestermann, Operations Manager of Windhoek Flight Training Centre, where Van Vuren works as a flight instructor, said yesterday.The name of the student pilot who died in the crash on Wednesday was released yesterday.He was Benjamin Candido de Oliveira, a 19-year-old Angolan national.Hiestermann said he had been a student with the flight school since mid-July.Van Vuren (24) is an experienced helicopter pilot and has been employed with Windhoek Flight Training Centre since June, Hiestermann said. He was previously working as a helicopter pilot in South Africa, she said.De Oliveira died when a Robinson R 22 helicopter in which he and Van Vuren were doing a training flight crashed to the ground in the Okapuka Tannery area north of Windhoek.In a media statement issued by the Windhoek Flight Training Centre yesterday, the flight school stated that the helicopter was leased from a South African company and was in the process of being registered in Namibia.With an official investigation into the cause of the crash having been launched, the flight school stated that it wanted to avoid any speculation about reasons for the crash at this stage.The accident took place while the helicopter was flying in an area that is specifically allocated for flying training purposes, it was stated in the press release.Flight procedures that were being exercised are required by the Directorate of Civil Aviation to obtain a private pilot’s licence on a helicopter, it was added.* Van Vuren’s name was incorrectly spelled as ‘Ruan van Vuuren’ in yesterday’s edition of The Namibian. Our apologies for the error.