FAMILY and friends are battling to understand how Gordon de Beer, an experienced pilot with more than "a thousand hours of flying behind him", was killed when he crashed his helicopter on Sunday.
De Beer, 38, a KwaZulu-Natal father of two toddlers, died when his helicopter went down near Kenton-on-Sea, between Port Elizabeth and East London.
The man who has been erroneously described as a game farmer in media reports, spent many hours in the air on game-capture projects and also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot in the Richards Bay area.
His brother-in-law, Derick van Zyl, told The Times that the family are devastated and have no idea what could have caused the helicopter to crash.
"He recently bought a game farm for his family to live on, but he was a pilot. It was his passion, his job and his livelihood," Van Zyl said.
"Gordon was extremely qualified. His death is an absolute shock to us and we just have no idea what could have happened."
De Beer was alone in the helicopter when it crashed and caught fire on Sunday morning.
Van Zyl said De Beer was working on a game-capture project at the time and was expected to meet other game capturers at the reserve.
"Gordon could fly more than eight types of helicopters. I do not know what could have gone wrong. The Civil Aviation Authority went out to the scene, but I don't think they have any results as yet," Van Zyl said.
The family have not yet set a date for the funeral.
"It is still a shock. Gordon had a young family. The children are just three and one.
"It is difficult for them to understand what has happened," said Van Zyl.
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