The pilot of the helicopter carrying Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo told another aircraft that he was flying through bad weather and had not emerged from cloud shortly before the helicopter crashed near Marondera, killing all five people aboard.
The reported final radio communications offer an early account of the conditions confronting the pilots, but investigators have not determined that weather was the cause of the crash.
Captain Kelvin Tafirei Soda and Captain Courage Mutavirwa were flying the Bell 430 carrying Chivayo, his wife Lucy Muteke and her personal aide, Senelisiwe Magagula, back towards Harare on Wednesday.
A second helicopter was travelling nearby, carrying Chivayo’s senior security aide, Froster Chisi.
According to an account attributed to local media, the two helicopters encountered rainy and misty conditions while returning from Chivayo’s rural homestead in Gandami, in Chikomba.
As the aircraft approached the Marondera area, visibility reportedly deteriorated.
The pilot of the second helicopter suggested changing course through Bromley because of the weather, according to Chisi’s account.
Soda continued communicating with the other aircraft.
“I’m in bad weather; I haven’t exited the cloud,”
he reportedly said over the radio.
His last reported position was in the Surrey area.
The pilot of the second helicopter later told Soda that they were about 10 minutes from their destination. Soda reportedly responded by asking which destination the pilot meant.
“Marondera,” the other pilot replied.
There was no further communication from the Bell 430, according to the account.
The second helicopter landed in Marondera, where those aboard initially expected the Bell 430 to arrive.
The group reportedly waited before eventually travelling to Harare to collect vehicles.
After more than an hour of unsuccessful attempts to contact Chivayo, Muteke and the two pilots, they learnt that the helicopter had crashed.
The Bell 430 came down at about 5 p.m. at Kudenga Farm near Waddilove Mission in Marondera Rural.
All five people aboard died.
George Mashababe, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, said preliminary observations indicated that fuel spilled after the helicopter struck the ground. The spilled fuel ignited, setting fire to surrounding grass.
Investigators have recovered a flight recorder from the wreckage. The device is expected to provide information that could help reconstruct the aircraft’s final moments.
Investigators are also expected to examine the radio communications, weather conditions, wreckage and other evidence as part of the inquiry.
The reported communications are significant because they provide an indication of the weather conditions encountered by the pilots immediately before the crash. They do not, however, establish what caused the helicopter to lose control or descend.
Authorities have not concluded that poor weather, spatial disorientation or any other specific factor caused the accident.
The investigation remains underway.
Chivayo, a prominent Zimbabwean businessman, was travelling with his wife, Lucy Muteke, and her personal aide, Senelisiwe Magagula.
The two pilots, Soda and Mutavirwa, were also killed.
The crash therefore claimed the lives of all five occupants of the Bell 430.
Investigators will now have to establish the sequence of events between the aircraft’s last radio communication and its impact at Kudenga Farm.
Until the investigation is completed, the reported weather conditions and the pilot’s final radio statement should be treated as evidence about the circumstances of the flight rather than a definitive explanation for the crash.