Fearless. Kind. Hard-working. Determined. A man who loved his friends and family to bits, and a “hugely talented” pilot.
These are just some of the words and phrases people used to describe pilot Chris Wiid, who was killed when his crop-duster aircraft crashed into a maize field near Bultfontein, Free State, last week.
Wiid, who was a former SA Air Force and SAA pilot, was ferrying his Air Tractor crop-duster from Bloemfontein to Hoopstad when the accident occurred. The plane crashed on the farm Sardinia, 20km from Bultfontein, on Thursday.
According to local aviation forum Avcom, Wiid had collected the aircraft from Bloemfontein after it had undergone its major periodic inspection (MPI).
There was speculation that Wiid, 52, may have been doing a reconnaissance of the fields he was due to begin spraying when he crashed.
Searchers found the crumpled wreck of the Air Tractor lying on its back, amid tall maize plants on Friday morning.
The SA Civil Aviation Authority has launched an investigation into the crash.
With SAA still grounded as a result of the pandemic and its protracted business rescue process, Wiid had reportedly just regained his crop-duster licence to earn money, according to one post on the aviation website.
In a tribute to Wiid, his brother, Francois, 48, wrote on his Facebook page that “Lik” (his nickname) had been busy in the Hoopstad area for the past few months.
“There you returned to your other love — crop spraying — just you, your wings and the open sky,” Francois wrote.
“You regularly sent us brothers videos of your tours between the clouds, with the plane imitating your five-year-old hands when you just learnt to dream.”
SAA colleague Reana Visser, who has worked in the airline’s flight operations centre at Airways Park in Johannesburg for 32 years, said Wiid was the “life and joy of every flight and simulator test. He got on well with everybody. People loved being in his company.”
Wiid never turned down the opportunity to operate a flight, she said.
“He always talked about his daughter, whom he loved more than life itself,” she said.
During lockdown, Wiid spent time drawing and discovered a hidden talent.
“He was he was exceptionally talented.”
In a moving video posted on Facebook, Wiid’s brothers Francois, Siebert and Pieta stand next to the wrecked aircraft to salute and pay their last respects with a toast.
An officer and a gentleman. We mourn his untimely death.
In his written tribute, Francois said there had been “bitter tears” when the brothers had packed up Chris’s room.
“How do I describe the moment when we open your bedroom door and see your neatly unpacked shoes right next to the cupboard. Everything smelled like you did, like evenings around the campfire; like a memory.”
Wiid, who spent nine years in the SAAF, followed by 20 years as a captain at SAA, was an extremely proud person, said Visser. “An officer and a gentleman. We mourn his untimely death.”
Wiid is survived by his mother Lettie, daughter Christie and girlfriend Twané van Rooyen.
The crash was one of two fatal air crashes in SA on Thursday, and marks a bad month for aviation in SA.
On Thursday afternoon, four of SA’s top medical specialists and their pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed near Colenso in KZN. The team had been en route to attend to a critically ill Covid-19 patient in Hillcrest when their Bell 430 helicopter, operated by Netcare, apparently broke up in flight.
On January 10, one person was killed and two were injured when the Alouette II helicopter they were travelling in crashed in a river near Brits in North West.
On January 13, a private pilot was badly injured while trying to make a forced landing in a cane field near Empangeni.
In Cape Town the pilot of a SANParks Squirrel helicopter escaped unhurt after crashing during take-off.
A Bell Jet Ranger helicopter also crashed near Reitz, Free State, on Tuesday morning, badly injuring the pilot.
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