Namibia: plane crash kills 5 Israeli diamond-mine representatives, local pilot

[Hail Columbia]

http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=21404&

WINDHOEK, Namibia, Jan. 12 (UPI and Israeli sources) -- Six people - the pilot and five Israeli businessmen -- were killed in Namibia when a chartered Chessna 210 plane crashed into a home.

US EMBASSY OFFICIAL SAW THE CRASH FROM HIS OFFICE:
The first report of the crash came to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem through the US State Department -- after an American-Jewish diplomat serving in the US Embassy, located in the Southern Life Building in Windhoek, actually saw the crash and reported it to Washington.

Windhoek embassy: international Phone: +264-61-295-8500)
Eros airport +264612955500 email: [email protected]

One local resident said the small plane had been flying at a low altitude prior to the Friday crash near Windhoek (pop.230,000) and the aircraft burst into flames immediately upon hitting the home, Ynetnews reported Saturday.
It's not known whether anyone was killed inside the house.

The victims were apparently representatives of a diamond company in the area on business. There is a sizeable Jewish/Israeli community in Windhoek, primarily engaged in the flourishing diamond trade there.

Since Israel has no embassy in Namibia, the Israeli Embassy in South Africa is working on the case.

The Israeli businessmen were apparently headed to a lodge in the Etosha Pans game park in northern Namibia.

About two minutes after take-off from Eros airport in Windhoek, the plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing in a residential suburb of the Namibian capital.

"I was walking home back from the shop when I saw this aircraft flying really low over our area. The next moment, it flew right into that house there," a witness, Tjiruripo Tjeriko, said.

The aircraft burst into flames on impact and was almost entirely engulfed by the flames, making identification of the victims very difficult. The pilot was also killed.

While the identities of the victims had yet to be determined, Israeli officials at the scene located five Israeli passports thought to have belonged to the plane's passengers.
The sixth victim was thought to have been a local pilot, Ynetnews reported. Officials have said that officially identifying the victims' remains could be problematic due to the damage caused by the crash and ensuing blaze.
Since we received word of the accident [Friday] the embassy is being assisted by the Israeli business community in Namibia," Israel's ambassador to South Africa, Ilan Baruch told Haaretz on Saturday.

Ilan said 'communication with the (Namibian) authorities was difficult'.
The Foreign Ministry said it was considering sending a police forensic team to Namibia, but the weekend had made it difficult to contact the Namibian authorities to receive permission to do so.