Cop causes stir after chopper lands at EC mall
A Johannesburg police officer who landed a SAPS chopper at Nonesi Mall in Komani on Tuesday – allegedly to buy some fast food – had permission from neither the mall nor SAPS.
He is now in hot water after pictures circulated on social media showing the helicopter parked in the mall parking lot and a man wearing a pilot jumpsuit queuing inside a fried chicken outlet.
The AS350 B3 squirrel helicopter was dispatched from East London to Komani for a crime prevention operation. National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said the pilot, who was with a crew member, should provide an explanation.
“We are aware that the officers were busy with crime prevention duties. We are investigating why they landed at the mall,” Naidoo said and declined to comment further.
The pictures of the unusual landing were taken by Freedom Front Plus Eastern Cape leader Bill Harrington, who posted them on his Facebook account. The post also shows CCTV screenshots of a man in a pilot jumpsuit queuing inside the chicken outlet. Harrington claims to have witnessed the landing at 2pm on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Nonesi mall centre manager Shaun Roux told the Dispatch that: “They did not request any permission to land on the mall premises.”
Roux said further questions could be answered by his bosses at their Johannesburg head office on Monday.
Harrington said: “After this police pilot got his food parcel and paid for it, he walked out, climbed back into his police helicopter, switched on the blades and swiftly flew away.”
KFC Eastern Cape marketing manager Aimee de la Harpe said the outlet was investigating the allegations and promised to get back with a response. However at the time of writing, KFC had not responded.
An extract from Harrington’s widely shared post reads: “This was not an official police practice run and or for any police duty concern, other than for this police pilot, to land, switch his blades off and walked nonchalant 30 metres into a chicken outlet; thus, not to investigate a crime scene or what so ever, but to queue in line for a quick takeaway and some gravy (train), with it.”
Harrington wrote: “Surely he did not have permission to land on this busy parking lot with cars and people all around and not just putting his own life at danger, but those all around him. He came uninvited and without pre-arranging his landing time or requesting to cordon off the area.”