Owner of Comav killed in chopper crash on farm

THE sole owner and shareholder of the Comav aviation company, Danie van der Merwe, died on Sunday afternoon when his Robinson R44 helicopter crashed on his farm near Windhoek.

He was flying from Windhoek to his farm Augeigas, which borders the Daan Viljoen Game Park outside Windhoek. He took two passengers from Eros Airport to Hosea Kutako Airport and was on his way to his farm when he hit a power line at around 18h00 on Sunday.The helicopter crashed and burst into flames, starting a veld fire that was still raging yesterday.”He was a very experienced and safety-conscious pilot and something on the ground must have distracted him,” remarked the Executive Director of Comav, Isaac Kaulinge.He also said that Van der Merwe had complained about poachers on his farm a couple of weeks ago and this might have been the reason why he took a different route to his farm this time.The helicopter was one of two owned by Comav and was used by Radio Cosmos for morning traffic reports in Windhoek.A management committee was appointed yesterday and a staff meeting was held to assure staff and business partners of Comav that the business would continue as usual.By yesterday already it was business as usual, with all flights taking off as scheduled.”Danie was a workaholic, always on the lookout for new challenges, and the best way we can honour his memory is by continuing with the day-to-day operations of his business” said Kaulinge.He took two passengers from Eros Airport to Hosea Kutako Airport and was on his way to his farm when he hit a power line at around 18h00 on Sunday.The helicopter crashed and burst into flames, starting a veld fire that was still raging yesterday.”He was a very experienced and safety-conscious pilot and something on the ground must have distracted him,” remarked the Executive Director of Comav, Isaac Kaulinge.He also said that Van der Merwe had complained about poachers on his farm a couple of weeks ago and this might have been the reason why he took a different route to his farm this time.The helicopter was one of two owned by Comav and was used by Radio Cosmos for morning traffic reports in Windhoek.A management committee was appointed yesterday and a staff meeting was held to assure staff and business partners of Comav that the business would continue as usual.By yesterday already it was business as usual, with all flights taking off as scheduled.”Danie was a workaholic, always on the lookout for new challenges, and the best way we can honour his memory is by continuing with the day-to-day operations of his business” said Kaulinge.