Pilot error the cause

An invesigation into the plane crash that killed former South African captain Hansie Cronje has found the cause to be pilot error.

The pilot and co-pilot were also killed when the plane crashed into a mountain near George in bad weather.

Judge Siraj Desai who was over-seeing the case said:

“The complacency of the pilot in command was surprising and … the co-pilot failed under the circumstances to do what a reasonable pilot would have done”.

“It is the court’s view that the death of the deceased Wessel Johannes (Hansie) Cronje was brought about by an act or omission prima facie amounting to an offence on the part of pilots”.

It is understood that 13 ground proximity warnings given by navigation equipment were ignored.

Cronje played for South Africa for eight years between 1992 and 2000 and scored 5565 runs in ODIs and 3714 runs in Tests, before he was given a life ban for match fixing.