Floris Steenkamp
THE helicopter crash at Swakopmund last Monday, which claimed the lives of two people, took a fresh and dramatic turn just now with the arrest of a woman believed to have been behind the forging of documents relating to the registration and the flight test permits of the ill-fated aircraft.
Ace pilot Jacques Jacobs (54) and trainee aircraft maintenance engineer Dirk von Weidts (29) died at around 15:00 on 17 July when the Robinson-44 helicopter they were testing, after repair and maintenance work, went down minutes after take-off on a test flight from the Swakopmund airfield.
An aviation repair and maintenance company trading under the name Namibia Base Aviation undertook the work on the helicopter that was registered under the call-sign V5-HGG. The woman arrested is in the employment of Namibia Base Aviation, according to a media release by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Safety, and Security just before day-end today. The press statement further indicates that it is Namibia Base Aviation that laid a complaint against the woman which will now lead to formal charges of fraud, forgery, and uttering.
The crash last Monday afternoon sent shockwaves through Namibian society at large, and on Saturday, an emotionally charged send-off was held for Jacobs at the Swakopmund airfield. This coming Saturday, von Weidts will be laid to rest, the latest developments shedding so much more sorrow and grief upon the loved ones of the departed Jacobs and von Weidts.
According to a press statement by the Namibian Police headquarters in Windhoek, the suspect will make a first appearance in the Swakopmund magistrate’s court tomorrow. What was understood is that this investigation is unrelated to the investigation by the Ministry of Works and Transport’s Air Accidents and Incident Investigations Unit. However, the Namibian Police’s investigation, as a result of the air crash, uncovered the alleged irregularities with the certification that led to the arrest of the woman at her Swakopmund residence on Sunday.
According to this police report, two iPhones, several external memory devices, 6 computers, 2 laptop computers, 2 cell phones, dozens of logbooks, and financial documents were confiscated from the suspect but also from Namibia Base Aviation were seized as part of the investigation.
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