The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) remains committed to continue the search operation for missing South African Airways (SAA) and aerobatic pilot Andrew Blackwood-Murray, 61, following an aeronautical accident in Durban.
The light aircraft Blackwood-Murray was piloting crashed into the breakers at Battery Beach on August 14. Parts of the aircraft have been recovered; however, Blackwood-Murray remains a missing person.
Spokesperson Craig Lambinon said there was much discussion and speculation over when a search of this kind should be called off, or, conversely, why it continues for so long.
“Any search for a missing person is regarded as an ongoing search. As much as from what we’ve seen, people would like to say the search has been called off, a search like this is never called off. It’s an ongoing investigation,” Lambinon explained.
“That to us is just noise. It’s unnecessary noise in the background. It’s an ongoing search, an ongoing investigation.”
Lambinon said it was no different to incidents that happened in some cases years ago.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re not still on the lookout for anything that can help the family with closure. For anything that can help in the ongoing investigation,” Lambinon said.
Parts of the plane Andrew Blackwood-Murray was in, have been recovered.
He said the South African Navy, South African police, and at times NSRI Durban, the Durban Underwater Club, Dive SA and Sea Shadow have provided world-class technology to assist.
“There’s two aspects here. One is all efforts are obviously to find anything that the family can hold and have for closure, but also it’s an aircraft accident, so any plane parts that can be discovered or recovered contributes to the Accident and Incident Investigations Division (AIID) to conduct a formal investigation into what happened,” Lambinon explained.
“If I look at the cases around the South African coastline where fishermen that have fallen off rocks or swimmers have drowned or gone missing in a drowning accident, we always keep a lookout. Anytime NSRI launches, anytime law enforcement officers or metro police walk along the beach, we continue to appeal to the public and the maritime community to keep a lookout.”
Lambinon said it is disheartening that some desire the sensation of the search being called off. He asked if it was called off, would they deliberately not look towards the sea to see if anything could still be found?
“Every incident that we deal with is handled individually, and out of respect to everybody involved, we simply use the term ‘it’s an ongoing search operation’,” Lambinon said.
“In the case of the Durban incident, we’re still hopeful that something’s going to wash ashore. We have appealed to the public if they spot anything to let us know, let the police know, so that it can be recovered for the ongoing investigation into the aeronautical accident.
“Through all of this, family are embraced with thoughts, care and compassion in this difficult time.”
Last week, the NSRI said police divers were continuing ongoing efforts in search and recovery operations.
Also, various eThekwini Municipality units, including police and lifeguards were on alert to recover wreckage that has washed ashore.
Lambinon said all recovered wreckage were taken into the care of a metro police hangar at Virginia Airport for investigation purposes.
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