Last respects to legendary pilot
Friends and family on Sunday said their final farewells to local and international pilot John Higgs, who died in a plane crash almost two weeks ago.
Friends and family came from as far as Singapore and all over the country to pay their last respects to well-known local and international pilot John Higgs who died in a plane crash two weeks ago.
With an overflowing chapel at a beautiful game lodge north of Pretoria, one friend, colleague and loved-one after the other spoke about Higgs, not only about the man he had been, but also his achievements and abilities as a pilot and what a wonderful father he had been.
Higgs, who has played a significant role in the local aviation industry for the past 36 years, died on Thursday 12 March, two months before he would have turned 60.
His self-built aircraft crashed shortly after he took off from Potchefstroom on his way back to Wonderboom airport, killing Higgs and family friend Andrew Ndlovu on impact.
The experimental aircraft was the 59-year-old Higgs’ great love and pride and he had been flying the aircraft for more than four years. On the Sunday before his death his daughter Megan and her friend, George Prinsloo, went for a pleasure flight with Higgs in the fateful plane.
At the time of his death Higgs was based in Singapore where he was the private pilot of an Indonesian tycoon whose company is based in Jakarta. However, Higgs spent all his free time in South Africa, where he had built up a reputation as one of the best pilots in the country. Although he had never flown for an airline, Higgs was qualified to do so. He was also a qualified flight instructor who trained members of the SA Police Air Wing.
He often also participated in air crash investigations for Civil Aviation and had an international reputation as one of the most accomplished private jet pilots in the world, industry sources said, adding that with all flight safety courses compulsory for commercial pilots, Higgs always scored the highest marks.
Sunday’s memorial service was arranged by Anette Theron, Higgs’ girlfriend at the time of his death. Theron was busy recording a video of Higgs taking off when the plane crashed. The recording will form part of the investigation into the crash.
Higgs was married to Alida Higgs for 22 years and had two children, Megan, a B.Com business administration student at the University of Pretoria and John Jnr, known as Maverick to friends and family, who is currently in the Royal Marines in the UK as a volunteer.
In his earlier days as a pilot, he flew for Gencor and was later employed as the private pilot of South African business magnate Bill Venter of Altron.
According to eye-witnesses to the crash, it appeared there had been an explosion before the plane went down.
Since the death of Higgs condolences and praise have been flooding social media from all over the world.
Read: Aviation legend mourned
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