INLSA
The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter which crashed at the Pietermaritzburg Botanic Gardens, with the groom, his parents and brother-in-law aboard. Picture: ER24 EMS
Durban – It wasn’t quite the lavish Botanic Garden ceremony they had planned, but hours after the groom survived a helicopter crash, he and his Pietermaritzburg bride were married in a hospital ward in the provincial capital, in the company of 40 guests on Saturday evening.
In the makeshift venue – complete with flowers and cake – Trinidadian dental surgeon Rishi Ramdeo, 32, and freelance journalist Nerissa Govender, 30, got the opportunity to exchange rings.
“The day was almost spoilt but, as a family, we felt we needed to do something to liven the spirits… It went very well,” the bride’s uncle Poobalan Govindasamy said on Sunday.
“We are just happy that everyone survived,” he said of the accident.
Rishi, his parents Vijay and Doy Ramdeo, and brother-in-law Robert Soogram were aboard the Bell Jet Ranger when it plummeted to the ground at the Pietermaritzburg Botanic Gardens, where more than 300 wedding guests awaited their arrival.
Nerissa had been taken to the venue in a horse-drawn carriage.
While Rishi and his father were both discharged from the local Medi-Clinic, his mother and Soogram remained there – according to family spokesman Yugusan Govender they had both suffered “orthopedic injuries”.
Apparently 33-year-old Mikael Olson, a highly regarded freelance pilot contracted to King Shaka Aviation, was at the controls of the helicopter which had taken off from Virginia Airport.
Olson managed to control the helicopter’s descent so that it did not hit road users in the busy Mayors Walk.
A wedding guest told The Mercury that there was concern for Olson, who seemed to have borne the brunt of the accident.
Olson was initially taken to St Anne’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg by paramedics, but was transferred to a Durban hospital later on Saturday evening.
King Shaka Aviation owner Russell Ashley-Cooper said Olson was bruised and in pain, but in a stable condition. “I saw him and he is doing well,” Ashley-Cooper said.
The Mercury’s sister paper, the Sunday Tribune, on Sunday quoted a bystander as saying that it sounded as if the helicopter engine had shut off, before it started to spin.
“There was a loud metallic thump as it hit the road. Then it was flung into the (palisade) fence. When the dust had settled, I ran over and the pilot was lying on the floor. The four passengers were still strapped into their seats,” Jon Hanekom had said.
On Sunday Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Marie Bray said that an investigation would be launched into the cause of the crash.
She expected to have a preliminary report available by tonight.
Govender confirmed that the family did not know whether human error or mechanical failure had been the cause.
He said that the newlyweds planned to settle in Trinidad.
The Mercury
