The plane that crashed, a Blackshape Gabriel, crashed straight down into the Zwarte Meer between Flevoland and Overijssel on Tuesday morning. This happened during a training flight for a 24-year-old student pilot from Transavia. The Dutch Safety Board is investigating the facts, but what exactly happened in those last seconds may never be fully clarified.
From one moment to the next, Auke’s sister Luise ended up in a nightmare on Tuesday, she writes on Facebook. In April she flew with her brother. For the first time. “I have to admit, I found it exciting, but the tension quickly dissipated once we were safely in the air. I could rely on your years of flying experience.”
“From F16 over war zones to the most beautiful and largest Boeings. Who better to fly such a plane than you? And then your joke as soon as we went over water… ‘yes, pull it up a lot, then we have extra meters to on land should things go wrong’…”
‘This is a huge loss’
Fellow flyers are ‘terribly shocked’ by what has happened, says Ferry van der Geest, an old friend of Auke. “We got to know each other at a young age in the military and afterwards both went into civil aviation. He at MartinAir, I at KLM. We lost touch for a while and then met again when he started working as a flight instructor. “
“We recently had a very nice chat during a meeting on Texel, old boys currant bread. It was extremely enjoyable. Among colleagues Auke was known as sweet, friendly and above all incredibly professional. This is a huge loss.”
His immediate colleagues from Air Combat EU are also saddened by the death of their comrade. “It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Auke ‘Monk’ Sieswerda has passed away after a fatal flying accident,” writes the flying school on Facebook. “Our thoughts go out to the relatives, family and acquaintances. Thank you Monk for everything. We will miss your expertise and friendliness immensely.”
“A great morning with young lads who want to fly. A morning that quickly turned into a pitch-black afternoon,” responds a fellow pilot. “Auke ‘Monk’ Sieswerda flew his last flight. An aviator at heart.”
Black box
It will be difficult to determine the exact cause of the accident. Unlike commercial aircraft, the vast majority of sport and training aircraft are not equipped with tracking equipment, more popularly known as the black box. With the information from the black box, it is possible to determine quite accurately what went wrong, otherwise it would normally be very difficult, experts say.
The bodies of both victims have been recovered and have since been handed over to the family.
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