Pilot’s legacy will be kept alive
Benoni Small Farms resident Jean-Francois Samouilhan will keep his father's legacy alive by completing the aircraft the two were in the process of building.
Jean-Francois and his father, Maurice (65), have been designing and building aircraft since 1988, and were building a prototype of their newest aircraft, the Obsession.
The father and son decided to build their own planes due to the expensive maintenance costs involved.
They soon began selling their aircraft.
The son will honour his father by inscribing his name on the Obsession when it is complete.
Maurice died in a tragic accident on November 3, in the Pacemaker aircraft he and his son built, shortly after taking off from the Springs Airfield, just before 5.45pm.
The aircraft experienced a fuel-related problem in flight.
Jean-Francois, who witnessed the flight, said Maurice, who had logged over 1 000 flying hours, turned to the right after experiencing signs of trouble, in an attempt to circle the airfield and land.
In the process, one of the wings clipped a tree and he crashed.
Maurice is believed to have died before flames engulfed the plane.
“Why did the fire have to be so big before I got there?” Jean-Francois asked.
“Why could it not wait until I could get my dad out of the plane?”
He said his father could have attempted a landing on the houses at the end of the runway, as some pilots would have done, as it is standard procedure to land at the end of the runway,.
He said his father stayed close to the runway to ensure no lives were lost.
“My father use to tell me: ‘If you have problems in the aircraft do not make it someone else’s problem,'” said Jean-Francois.
“What he meant by that is do not crash into houses or cars.”
He said he and his father were involved in many crash landings and, when his father was alone in the plane he would get to the scene and find Maurice had already exited the plane and was laughing about the matter.
Jean-Francois was almost on the flight in which his father crashed in.
He had asked whether he could accompany Maurice on the short flight around the airfield, just before the fateful crash.
Maurice refused and said they would go on an extended flight when he returned from his first flight.
Maurice leaves behind Jean-Francois, his daughter Anique Pringle, wife Laurine and four grandsons, Jean-Marc (9) and Jean-Pierre Samouilhan (4), Keegen (17) and Taygen (15) Pringle. His funeral service was held in St Patrick’s Catholic Church, in Benoni, on November 8.
