Life imitates art in Cape plane robbery

Our country is a movie. Struesgod! And this week I was reminded of the movie Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage and some local superstars, including Tony Kgoroge and Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha.

A scene reminiscent of the 2005 crime film – which is said to be based on actual events and the story of convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout – is proof that there’s never a dull moment in Mzansi, our beautiful land of melktert and bunny chow.

I’m talking about the pandemonium that ensued when two pilots were robbed blind after their light aircraft crash-landed in the Cape Town township of Luzuko, in Lower Crossroads.

You would think the residents of Luzuko would be running away from a plane that just crash-landed, for fear of it exploding. Oh no! They ran to it – and not to help the occupants, judging by the videos circulating on social media.

Their motives varied from curiosity to just plain criminality. As one of the videos shows, some went inside, while others were touching the plane.

It turns out, according to emergency response reports, that the pilots, who were taken to hospital, complained about being robbed of their personal belongings and other items, including headsets. By the way, are they compatible with the aux ports on cellphones, laptops and so on?

Anyway, the video reminded me of a scene in the movie when Cage – who plays the lead character of Yuri – was smuggling arms into West Africa when his plane was forced to land by Interpol, led by his arch nemesis played by Ethan Hawke.

Instead of landing at the nearest airport as instructed, the plane crash-landed in a remote village in Sierra Leone. With the two pilots abandoning the plane for fear of arrest, Yuri offered the villagers all the arms and ammunition on board so that by the time the police arrived, there would be no evidence linking him to arms dealing.

He marvels at his ingenious plan: “What a cargo crew at Heathrow Airport does in a day, a bunch of malnourished Sierra Leone locals did in a few minutes,” he said of the men, women and children who took machine guns, grenades and bullets. In 24 hours, the plane was stripped bare, right down to its wheels.

We wait with bated breath for the report from the Civil Aviation Authority after their investigation into the cause of the accident.

As Yuri says in the movie: “Evil prevails because evil prevails!” And in Cape Town evil did prevail when locals saw an opportunity to steal while fellow beings were in despair.

Thank goodness there were no fatalities or major injuries.