The Arrive Alive website received information via email of a botched hijacking near Bloemfontein. I had a long, hard thought whether I should share this and decided that crime does indeed threaten our safety on the roads and we need to warn criminals that they risk their lives should they challenge the powers of law enforcement!
This is not intended to share brutal pictures of dead bodies – but rather to provide the South African road user with a bit more peace of mind that his safety on the road will be protected against violent attacks from criminals.
The incident was described to the Arrive Alive website as follows:
• Oryx helicopter pilots were busy with training ops in conjunction with the task force in Bloemfontein
• A call came in of an attempted hijacking and probable casualty on the Bultfontein road.
• They touched down after their exercise when the call came in, and took off almost immediately.
• The incident happened somewhere on the Bultfontein road, but with the following incidents in sequence:
1: Call comes in and they radio that ETA is approx. 3.5 minutes.
2: 3 minutes after take off they spot a Q7 doing about 180km/h on a gravel road
3: Coming down to about 3 meters above ground level next to the Q7 they confirm the suspects
4: They fly out in front of them and attempt to land in the gravel road to stop them… the Q7 heads for Oryx and they pull up.
5: They reach the Bultfontein road and turn onto tar, now they are doing 250km/h
6: Again they come down to about 3 meters next to the Q7 running flat taps
7: The next moment the suspects pull out 4 AK47’s
8: All hell breaks loose and the winners are: TAAAAASK FOOOOOOORCE!
[Here are the pics. Note, these were never published or even got to the papers.]
Congrats to the guys trying to make this country a peaceful and lovely place to live in!
Also view:
- Hijack Prevention Guidelines
- What do the Crime Statistics 2009 tell us, specifically regarding Car Insurance?
