The identities of the two people killed in yesterday afternoon’s tragic aircraft crash at Middelburg Airfield in Mpumalanga have been confirmed by members of the Middelburg Aero Club (MAC) as husband and wife Quentin and Lezette Steyn.

Middelburg Observer spoke to Johan Cillié, the vice-chairman of MAC: “Just last week on Monday, I spoke to Quentin for about an hour. He was a smart and pleasant man. Both he and his wife Lezette were very nice people, and I am heartbroken for their family for losing them both.”

Cillié and the chairman of MAC, Cobus Peens, corroborated that Quentin was a former commercial airline pilot.

“I believe he was a skilled and experienced pilot and by no means a novice,” Peens says.

Middelburg Observer also spoke to Debbie Minnie, a close friend of Lezette.

“She was a wonderful mother. Lezette endured a lot of hardship in her life, but she always came out on top.”

Although not members of MAC, the couple had frequented the Middelburg Airfield since January and stored their Rans S-10 Sakota at the club’s facilities.

The crash, which occurred yesterday afternoon between the airfield’s runway and the outer fencing, left the plane severely damaged from the impact and destroyed by the resulting flames.

Peens says Mayday-SA, a ‘group of volunteers offering a confidential and compassionate support network to South African aviation licence holders’, has offered its services to the victims’ family and everyone who attended the scene.

The couple are survived by two young daughters.

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