Durban's ongoing search for missing aerobatic pilot Andrew Blackwood-Murray
The search continues for missing pilot, Andrew Blackwood-Murray.
Image: Facebook/Andrew Blackwood-Murray
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has confirmed that the search for missing SAA and aerobatic pilot Andrew Blackwood-Murray, aged 61, is ongoing in Durban after an aeronautical accident.
On August 14, the light aircraft he was piloting crashed into the ocean at Battery Beach.
While some parts of the aircraft have been recovered, Blackwood-Murray is still unaccounted for.
NSRI spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, said there is much discussion and speculation about 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 said.
“That to us is just noise. It’s unnecessary noise in the background. It’s an ongoing search, an ongoing investigation.”
Lambinon said it is 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.
Image: Doctor Ngcobo/Independent Newspapers
Metro police, eThekwini authorities and eThekwini lifeguards remain on alert to recover wreckage that has washed ashore.
Lambinon said all recovered wreckage has been taken into the care of a metro police hangar at Virginia Airport for the AIID and the police’s ongoing investigation.
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