‘LOVE YOU, DADDY. BE SAFE’

Those were the last words teen pilot Megan said to her dad.

The next day he was killed in a plane crash BY JACQUES MYBURGH

I

T WAS a picture-perfect setting: a

warm late afternoon on the shores of

Likoma Island, the azure waters of

Lake Malawi turning golden under

the setting sun.

But the teenage girl lying in a ham-

mock was oblivious to the beauty

around her. A sense of dread was

creeping over her as she waited for news

of her dad.

“My heart went cold. I knew some-

thing was wrong,” Megan Werner says.

The 17-year-old made headlines recent-

ly after she and a group of teenagers built

their own Sling 4 plane as part of the

U-Dream Global initiative and successful-

ly flew it from Cape Town to Cairo. The

epic journey, which started on 13 June,

took 31 days and covered 24 000km.

Megan’s dad, Des (49), a pilot, helped

the kids found the nonprofit organisa-

tion and flew the support plane. So when

the teens successfully achieved their

goal, a dream that had been two years in

the making, Des wasrightthere to con-

gratulate his youngest daughter.

The self-made plane had to be left in

Cairo so the kids could make it back to

South Africa in time for the new school

term. They returned to fetch it two weeks

later.

Tragically, the final return flight would

prove fatal for Des and his copilot, Wer-

ner Froneman.

“I never thought something like that

would happen to my dad,” Megan says.

“He had more than 100  000 hours of

flight experience.”

Her mom, Belinda (44), sits next to her,

holding her daughter’s hand. Megan’s

older sister, Cindy (21), is next to them

on the couch in their home close to

Lanseria airport outside Johannesburg.

Flowers from the funeral, which was

held on 12 August, sit before them on

the coffee table.

Megan recalls how she and her copilot,

Driaan van den Heever (18), had landed

their Sling 4 in Malawi on the morning

of Friday 2 August.

“We’d flown a long stretch – almost

seven hours,” Megan recalls.

Des, who was travelling with Werner

from Sudan to Malawi, had radioed to

say the support plane’s oil pressure was

giving them trouble and they’d decided

to land in Uganda.

“It started getting late and my dad

told us to keep flying so we could reach

[Malawian capital] Lilongwe before

nightfall,” Megan says.

Des and Werner worked on the aircraft

in Uganda, filled up with petrol and took

off on the Saturday morning. Des let

the team know they’d arrive on Likoma

Island before nightfall.

“It got later and later, and we realised

time was running out. That’s when I got

into the hammock and waited,” Megan

says.

Before the tragedy she’d fallen in love

with Malawi, entranced with the island

and the tropical f ish teeming in the huge

lake.

Now the island near the Mozambican

12 | 29 AUGUST 2019 you.co.za