Brave rescue workers praised

Rescue workers sifting through the wreckage of the two planes that crashed into a cliff in the Lekgalameetse mountains on Sunday have received high praise for bravery.

Mopani District municipal manager Tim Maake said he had to dig deep to stay "cool and calm" when he visited the crash site.

"If you look at that place where that impact happened, the guys working there have got big hearts.

"It's not a very easy place to be," Maake said.

Police and rescue workers were still sifting through the wreckage, while the SA Civil Aviation Authority launched an investigation into the cause of the accident after the two Albatross aircraft crashed into the mountains in cloudy weather.

The planes' pilots were Brian Gruar and Peter Gildenhuys, and the passengers were Marrion Anderson, sisters Maddison and Alexandra Doak, Tess Spence, Louise Warden, Kevin Woolacott, Peter van Oldenburg, Frans Dely, Marietjie de Witt, Stuart van Oldenburg and Linda Pierce.

The group took off from the Tarentaal airstrip, about 15km outside Tzaneen, to return to the Rand Airport in Germiston after an air show over the weekend.

They were expected to land on Sunday afternoon, but never arrived.

A drawn-out search was launched to find the planes but was hampered by low visibility due to bad weather conditions.

The debris from the wreckage of the two planes was lying less than 150m apart when they were located by a helicopter on Tuesday morning.

Black scorch marks against the mountain, molten metal and charred debris is all that remained of the two aircraft.

Police, rescue teams and aviation authorities have been working since early on Tuesday to remove all bodies from the area and to gather evidence.

Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, Limpopo police spokesman, said some of the bodies have been burned beyond recognition.

He confirmed that all bodies had been removed and were being taken to Pretoria "where police will do postmortem testing as well as to identify the bodies".

Mulaudzi said police would prioritise the inquest to ensure that the families of the deceased got closure.