Pilot flies plane into club in bid to kill wife

A pilot deliberately crashed a stolen aircraft into a flying club in Botswana that was hosting a party for 60 people including his wife.

Guests at a baby shower fled after Charl Viljoen flew past repeatedly in what witnesses said was a menacing way before directing the small passenger plane at the building, killing himself. The clubhouse was destroyed but nobody else is believed to have been hurt.

In a video the plane piloted by Viljoen, 38, is seen shortly before the crash at sunset on Saturday flying low and fast towards the building.

Witnesses told local media that in the hours before the incident the South African had arrived uninvited to the party at Matsieng aerodrome near Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, and had then hit his wife, Natasha, during the ensuing argument.

He is understood to have left the event and travelled about 50km south to Sir Seretse Khama airport, where he took a twinengined, eight-passenger Beechcraft Super King Air B200 without permission.When Viljoen, the father of a young boy, hit the clubhouse a large fire broke out, destroying the building along with 13 cars and an air traffic control tower.

Matsieng Flying Club confirmed that its clubhouse had been booked for a private function when Viljoen arrived as ‘‘an uninvited guest’’.

It said in a statement: ‘‘At approximately 18.15 the aircraft approached Matsieng aerodrome from the direction of Sir Seretse Khama airport and made a number of low-level flypasts from different directions past the club facilities next to the air traffic control tower.

‘‘Matsieng Flying Club members sensed that the pilot might have had an ulterior motive at the time and ordered an immediate evacuation of the club premises by the approximately 60 people present.’’