A 23 year-old French pilot died early yesterday morning in a PE hospital after his gyrocopter crashed on a Patensie farm, in the Eastern Cape, on Friday afternoon.
Uitenhaige SAPS warrant officer, Gerda Swart, said that Marco Martino died just after midnight on Saturday, 5 September, at 12.30 am. He had been irrigating crops on the Andriesfontien farm just before 4 pm when the copter crashed and started to burn.
Owing to the remoteness of the site, a helicopter had to be sent to airlift Martino in a serious condition to a PE Hospital where he passed away early this morning.
Swart says Civil Aviation and the SAPS are investigating the matter.
By Bev Mortimer
St Francis Chronicle 