The air crash that led to the death of former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje last year might have been caused by faulty landing instruments, a South African newspaper report said on Saturday.
According to Beeld, investigations have revealed that poor maintenance of instruments arising out of cost-cutting decisions could have contributed to the plane from Johannesburg crashing into a mountain in George, killing Cronje and his two pilots in June 2002.
Paul O'Sullivan, the former security chief of Airport Companies (ACSA), has said in his signed affidavit that the instrument landing system (ILS) at the George airport was faulty for some time before the crash but "no steps were taken to rectify the problems," Beeld reported.
"Minutes of the meetings will show that although ACSA was told to replace the system, they decided against it in order to save," O'Sullivan was quoted as saying.
The ACSA however said that the civil aviation authorities, who are probing the crash, were directly responsible for the ILS.
KC Marobela, spokesperson for the civil aviation authority, said "a report of the investigation is expected in August. Results of tests being conducted in Britain are still being awaited."