Plane crashes outside Port Alfred

A trainee pilot swam to safety after his plane crashed in the Kowie River this morning.


Private ambulance service Gardmed has confirmed that paramedics were dispatched from Grahamstown to Mansfield Reserve 6km from Port Alfred, where a plane crashed into the Kowie River, approximately 11km inland from the river mouth.

Gardmed Regional Manager Craig Schwartz said the paramedics did not in fact attend the scene because the pilot was uninjurred.

"He swam out of the wreck to the shore," Schwartz said. Schwartz said the pilot was on a training flight from 43 Air School.

A person who was at the adjacent Mansfield Reserve confirmed the incident and said it had happened at Crab Creek, just before the Mansfield Reserve jetty.

While emphasising that they had not personally been at the scene, the person, who asked not to be identified, said, "Everybody's fine. The crash was not fatal." 

The person confirmed the plane had been flown from 43 Air School.

"I can't tell you much because I'm not there, but right now they're busy trying to work out how to get the plane out of the river," the person said.

When Grocott's Mail called 43 Air School for comment soon after the incident this morning, the person answering the phone emphatically said, "There is no comment." They did not confirm that the plane was from 43 Air School, nor that they were aware of a plane crashing near the school.

www.grocotts.co.za)