You South Africa – 29 August 2019

SUPPLIED, FANI MAHUNTSI

borderwithSAwillalways be a haunting

reminder of the day her father, the man

who taught her to fly, was killed.

“When I heard my dad had died, I

didn’t want to leave. I just wanted to stay

on the island alone and never go home.”

T

HE last time Megan spoke to

her father was on WhatsApp

the night before his death.

“My last words to him were,

‘Love you, Daddy. Be safe’,”

says Megan, who’s in matric

at Hoërskool Noordheuwel in Krugers-

dorp, Gauteng.

While she waited for him on the banks

of Lake Malawi, back home in South

Africa Belinda received a call from a

friend in Tanzania.

“She told me there was breaking news.

A plane with two South Africans aboard

had crashed. There were apparently no

survivors,” Belinda says.

She tried not to fear the worst.

“I’d never doubted my husband’s pilot-

ing skills. I called one of our contacts, a

flight inspector, in Tanzania.

“He called me back shortly afterwards

and gave me the plane’s registration

number. It was Des’ plane.”

Des and Werner died on impact.

Mother and daughter squeeze each

other’s hands. “In that moment I couldn’t

think. I was shattered,” Belinda says. “I

just wanted to get the news to Megan.”

It fell to Driaan to break the news to

his friend of her dad’s death.

As the local fishermen headed back to

the mainland with the day’s catch,

Driaan walked over to Megan, who was

still in the hammock.

“He just looked down and didn’t say

anything. That’s when I knew my dad

was dead.”

The teens left their plane in Malawi

and returned to South Africa the next

day on a commercial flight.

D

ES’ death leaves a huge hole

in the family. “He used to call

us his three girls,” Belinda

says, her voice shaking.

“We were the most impor-

tant thing in his life. Pilots of-

ten don’t get to spend a lot of time with

their families. But Des made a point of

being here for events such as birthdays

and anniversaries.”

“He never missed one of my sporting

events,” Megan adds. “He did so much

for us. We’re so grateful to have had him

asourdad.”

Cindy,a BScstudentatNorth-West

University’s Potchefstroom campus,

recalls how Des had taught her to ice-

skate as a child.

“He told me the railings surrounding

the ice rink represent society. It’s your

comfort zone. Each time I reached out

to the railings, he told me to get out of

my comfort zone and move to the mid-

dle of the rink.”

But Des was always by her side, ready

to catch her should she fall. Until one

day, when Cindy skated to the middle of

the rink and looked back to see he hadn’t

followed her. “He was sitting on the side-

lines, applauding me.”

That’s what she would’ve wanted to tell

him if she’d known that text message

would be their last conversation, Megan

says. “Thank you for everything you’ve

done for us. He made my sister and me

into the people we are today. He pushed

us out of our comfort zones.”

Megan, Cindy and Belinda will always

remember Des for his off-beat humour.

“He could joke about anything,” Megan

says. “When tempers flared during the

Cape to Cairo trip, my dad had a way of

defusing the situation.”

Des taught Megan to fly in the weeks

before her heroic journey. She managed

to get her private pilot’s licence just two

days before leaving Cape Town.

“We’d go flying before school in the

mornings, just me and my dad. It would

still be dark and we’d see the sun rising

above the horizon. It was special.”

Is she afraid of flying now?

“No. I was scared just after we’d re-

turned but after my dad’s funeral I got

in a plane again.

“He died doing what he loved.”

Megan says she feels closest to her dad

when she’s flying high above the clouds.

“He always taught me to reach for

my dreams and he would’ve wanted me

to keep doing what we both loved –

flying.” S

LEFT:Belinda

comfortsCindy,

whosaysher

dadtaughther

toleaveher

comfortzone.

RIGHT:Megan

withhercopilot,

Driaan van den

Heever, who had

to break the

news of her

dad’s death

to her.

‘I never thought

something like that

would happen to my dad’

LEFT: Des Werner

and his youngest

daughter, Megan,

doing what they

both loved. He

died in a crash

while flying the

support plane that

had accompanied

Megan in her self-

built aircraft back

to South Africa

from Cairo. RIGHT:

Megan, Des, mom

Belinda and eldest

daughter Cindy.

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