Some of SA's most well known Web 2.0 entrepreneurs and IT communications specialists are being hailed as heroes this morning, after they pulled two people from a burning plane that crashed in Krugersdorp.
At about 2pm yesterday afternoon, the group witnessed a two-seater aircraft “bounce” off the road and crash head-on into a bakkie that was trailing freeboarders on a secluded road.
“We were out on a private road near an airstrip. The guys were freeboarding [an on-road sport similar to snowboarding] when we saw the plane take off,” explains Monica Braganca, who was driving the bakkie.
Branganca works for Craig Rodney, one of the freeboarders and owner of Emerging Media -an agency specialising in IT communications. Anna Vaulina, another of Rodney's employees, was also in the car, while Tony van Aswegen was in the back of bakkie.
Nic Haralambous, who runs SA Rocks; Rich Mulholland, the founder of Missing Link; Mike Stopforth, CEO of Cerebra; Don Packett, a well known blogger; Riccardo Webb, from Thunklab.com; Nic Jackson, information architect at Fire Water; and Guy Taylor, a behavioural analyst working on several Web concepts, were all on the scene.
According to Branganca, who spoke to ITWeb this morning, the plane seemed to be having trouble and dived a few feet. “At that time, we still thought it would come right, but then it came straight for us.”
She says the plane literally bounced off the road, before crashing head-on into the car. Van Aswegen was thrown off the back of the bakkie, while Branganca and Vaulina managed to escape without injury.
According to Stopforth's blog, after hearing the crash, the freeboarders raced to rescue the two pilots, who were trapped in the burning airplane.
Stopforth says Jono Herbst, of Pure Rush, the company teaching the group the sport, and Haralambous, went into the cockpit and began dislodging the badly injured pilot and passenger.
“The passenger's leg got stuck and Rich Mulholland jumped in to help pull him out.”
The group then pulled the men to a safe distance, fearing the plane would explode. “It's something you only hear about in movies. You never expect it to happen to you,” explains Branganca.
Everyone involved knows they are lucky to have survived the incident, she says. By all accounts, the two men in the plane suffered only minor injuries.
The story has spread like wildfire across the Internet and on social sites, like Twitter.
To read the full account written by Stopforth, click here. Other photographs taken by the group after the accident can be found here.
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