Gyrocopter pilot dies after crash

[caption id="attachment_99107" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Critically injured pilot Marco Martino is transferred to hospital . Picture: Fredlin Adriaan/The Herald.[/caption]

The pilot of a gyrocopter which crashed his aircraft into a mountainside near Patensie yesterday, has died.

Police confirmed that critically injured pilot Marco Martino, 23, died shortly after 1am this morning (05/09/15).

Martino's gyrocopter burst into flames in almost inaccessible terrain on a steep mountainside along the Gamtoos Valley just after 3pm yesterday. He sustained second and third degree burns covering his body.

In an heroic rescue yesterday, Patensie farmers and farm workers stripped off their clothes to create a makeshift stretcher in an attempt to help save the badly burned pilot. He was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition where he passed away.

- Gareth Wilson Full report today in Weekend Post.