Chopper crashes on way to wedding

A TRINIDADIAN celebrity dentist is lucky to be alive after a helicopter taking him to his wedding crash-landed on a busy road in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, yesterday.

The helicopter, which was hired from King Shaka Aviation, made an emergency landing 800m from the city’s botanical gardens, where 300 guests had gathered for the ceremony.

Dr Rishi Ramdeo, 32, the youngest dental surgeon in Trinidad and Tobago, and his parents, who were on board the Jet Ranger helicopter, were taken to Mediclinic with injuries.

The pilot, who has not been named, was also admitted to the hospital.

The bride, Nerissa Govender, 30, was in shock and declined to comment. Her cousin, Yugusan Govender, said guests watched in horror as the helicopter fell to the ground.

“The wedding was about to start . . . We could see the helicopter approaching, but then the engine stopped making a sound and we realised something was happening,” he said.

“We heard a bang and then just started running towards it.”

Govender said that the police, paramedics and emergency services arrived at the scene and managed to pull the people out of the wreck.

“The bride is devastated ... but we are all just happy that fatalities were averted,” he said, adding that “they are all stable”.

Russell Ashley-Cooper of King Shaka Aviation confirmed that the helicopter was one of his fleet.

“We are still in the process of notifying the relevant authorities and I’m waiting for people in Pietermaritzburg to give me more information. I can’t tell you anything more than that at this stage, ” he said.

A police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge, said that the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after the helicopter experienced what appeared to be engine failure.

A Trinidad newspaper, Newsday, recently reported that Ramdeo, fondly known as “the singing dentist”, had gained fame in his country following his success in a gospel reality show titled Making a Music Minister.

In the newspaper interview, Ramdeo said: “I want to be a role model for the young men out there and I want to advise them to fear God!”

He is working on his debut album.