A helicopter flip to survey the damage caused by last week's runaway fires in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands almost turned into another tragedy on Saturday when the four-seater craft was forced to crash land in a plantation in the Karkloof area.
The pilot, Dave Petersen, local farmers Bruce and Walter Mackenzie, and Walter Mackenzie's teenage son, Sean, escaped with minor injuries.
Attempts to contact the family on Sunday were unsuccessful as telephone lines appeared to be out of order.
Petersen said he was relieved that no one had been seriously hurt, but said he was not authorised to comment.
His company would issue a statement on Monday.
Civil aviation investigators visited the crash site on Sunday and will compile a report of their findings. Inspector Jack Haskins of the police search and rescue unit, who was at the scene with Netcare paramedics, said the pilot had tried to land the helicopter on a road in the plantation after experiencing a problem, but it had apparently clipped trees and had been severely damaged.
The Mackenzies had hired the helicopter to conduct an aerial survey of the damage done to their farms by the fire.