Tragedy as Netcare 911 Chopper Crashes in KZN Kills All on Board
- Tragedy struck when a Netcare 911 helicopter crashed with all five occupants losing their lives
- The identities of the victims have been released with two of them being doctors, one a paramedic and another a specialist nurse
- The fifth victim was the pilot of the aircraft; the cause of the crash is not known yet but eyewitnesses report seeing an explosion
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The identities of the five individuals who died in a fatal helicopter crash between Ladysmith and Colenso have been revealed.
Netcare 911 released a statement and hailed the two medics as heroes who died in the line of duty.
Dr Kgopotso Rudolph Mononyane, who was an anaesthetist, Dr Curnick Siyabonga Mahlangu, a cardiologist, and Mphp Xaba, who was a specialist nurse, died in the crash.
Source: Twitter
In addition, Sinjin Farrance, an advanced life support paramedic, and the helicopter pilot, Max Stoxreiter, perished as well.
The families of the deceased have been informed and the families, friends and colleagues have been offered counselling.
It is not clear at this stage what caused the crash but eyewitness reports have indicated that there was an explosion and the videos from the crash site show that the debris is scattered over a large area.
Earlier, Briefly.co.za reported that thousands of families across the world are mourning the loss of their loved ones to the dreaded coronavirus. A South African businessman and founder of ScooterSA with the Twitter handle @AudioTheBrand is one of them.
The young man recently took to his Twitter page to share the sad news of his dad's passing due to Covid-19. According to the post, his dad was a doctor who worked on the frontline and had tested positive for the virus but continued to work helping save many other lives.
"My dad was a frontline doctor who had been in hospital for close to two weeks after testing positive for Covid. He left this earth this morning. After doing what he loved for many years. Death is painful. I’m numb. RIP Dr MH Mapela," he wrote sadly.
In other Briefly.co.za news, the community of Mulbarton in Johannesburg gathered as one to pray outside the Netcare Mulbarton Hospital. A powerful image showing the community praying while maintaining social distancing was shared with the #ImStaying group on Facebook.
Connie MakaLethu Hlelokuhle, a nurse at the hospital, shared the image with the group, stating that she felt humbled by the kind and thoughtful act. Connie also shared that the staff are taking care of patients who received positive Covid-19 diagnoses.
The post gained over 11 000 reactions on the app with the comments section showing the unity of South Africans.
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Source: Briefly News
