Wicknell Chivayo and wife’s bodies spend the night at the crash site before removal
• The remains of Wicknell Chivayo, his wife Lucy Muteke and other victims of Wednesday’s Marondera helicopter crash spent the night at Kudenga Farm.
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• It was reported on Thursday that the bodies had finally been collected, after about 18 hours.
• Authorities and the family have pointed to fire, dismemberment and a wait for forensic teams.
The bodies of Wicknell Chivayo, his wife Lucy Muteke and the others killed with them were still at Kudenga Farm on Thursday morning, for almost 18 hours after the helicopter came down.
Source: Twitter
ZTN reported at mid-morning that the remains had at last been collected, after spending the night at the scene. NewZimbabwe, whose reporters were at the farm at about 10:00, described a recovery still under way roughly 18 hours after the crash, with forensic officials and morticians from Doves Funeral Services gathering remains and carrying them on stretchers to waiting vehicles.
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When did the crash occur?
The aircraft went down at about 17:00 on Wednesday, 30 September, in rural Marondera, about 40 minutes after leaving Gandami in Chikomba, where the couple had been overseeing a rural home. Police said six people were on board and that none survived. Family spokesperson Herbert Chivayo confirmed that Chivayo and Muteke were among the dead. ZTN’s update referred to the businessman, his wife and three others. The police figure remains six.
What is not in dispute is that the dead were left in the field overnight.
By midnight, funeral teams were already at the cordon and the bodies had not been moved. On Thursday morning they were still there. A farm worker told NewZimbabwe that people who reached the wreckage could not put out the fire on the bodies until a water bowser was brought in, and that the victims were badly burnt. State media reported that remains and body parts stayed on site into Thursday while the family waited for forensic experts, and that cultural practice required the remains not to be mixed during recovery. The Civil Aviation Authority said fuel spilled on impact and a grass fire followed. The black box was recovered intact. The cause of the crash has not been established.
Source: UGC
How social media users reacted
Online, the overnight delay is being read as a failure of the state: a high-profile crash, a secured scene, funeral services already present, and the dead still in the open at sunrise. The same anger has attached to how quickly officials confirmed the deaths and how slowly the wreckage was cleared.
The remains are expected to go for formal identification and post-mortem before any release to the families. Chivayo’s brother Joachim was among relatives at the site while the recovery continued.
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Source: Briefly News
