Agulhas, 04th October, 2009. Shane Kempen, NSRI Agulhas station commander said: “At 09h25 NSRI Agulhas were alerted following eye-witness reports of a light aircraft, reportedly a Cessna, crashed into the sea 200 metres off-shore of Struisbaai harbour and further reports of debris from the crashed plane floating in the water.
[ad#Google Adsense 125×125 Blog Post]”We immediately began investigations into the matter while activating our NSRI Agulhas volunteer duty crew and while activating the Emergency Services but shortly into our investigations it was confirmed that no aircraft had crashed into the sea and only a lone paddler on a Kayak was found to be in difficulty after capsizing his craft at sea and being unable to get back on 200 metres off-shore of Struisbaai harbour in relatively calm sea conditions.
“We launched our rescue craft Crusader and on arrival on-scene rescued 62 year old Agulhas resident Petrus Zeeman and we brought him to shore and treated him for mild hypothermia and he required no further assistance.
“It is suspected that a light aircraft which had been flying around the Struisbaai area earlier and which had reportedly been swooping down towards the sea in flying manoeuvres may have given bystanders the impression that it had crashed into the sea although we don’t know for sure what gave people this impression.”
Contact: NSRI Agulhas
