Namibian plane crash claims Israeli diamond dealers

Israeli diamond dealers perish in a deadliest aircraft accident in Namibia in more than a decade.

WINDHOEK - 

The deadliest aircraft accident in Namibia in more than 10 years has claimed the lives of five Israeli diamond dealers and their local pilot.

The plane crash, which occurred late Friday afternoon, is suspected to have been caused by engine problems experienced shortly after take-off from Eros Airport in the capital Windhoek.

A team of forensics experts from Israel was expected to arrive Monday to help Namibian officials investigate the plane crash, Namibia's South African ambassador said Sunday.

Lawyer Chris Merkel--who represents Lazare Kaplan, the New York partners of local diamond cutter Nam-Gem, a wholly owned subsidiary of government/De Beers diamond mining joint venture Namdeb--told Israeli media that the men were employed by Lazare Kaplan International.

The aircraft burst into flames on impact and was almost entirely engulfed by the flames, making identification of the victims very difficult. Although the Namibia police are keeping a tight lid on their identities, diamond industry sources in Namibia named the victims as Shlomo Zilberberg, 54, Shmuel Zigdon, 53, Amit Cohen, 26, Ilan Hadadi, 44, and Avichai Abarov.

The plane, a Cessna registered to local aviation company Atlantic Aviation, crashed after it attempted to perform an emergency landing. It was headed for Etosha Pan National Park in northern Namibia.

Diamond industry officials said the men working in Namibia where they were overseeing the construction of three new diamond-cutting facilities, a project initiated by Zilberberg, owner of a diamond company based in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.

"It was a horrific accident. People lost their lives in a very cruel way," Israeli Ambassador Ilan Baruch, who is in Windhoek and has visited the scene of the crash, told the media Sunday. Since there is no Israeli embassy in the country, South African officials were assisting authorities in Namibia and Israel.

"I don't remember such a tragedy befalling the Israeli diamond family," Avi Paz, President of the Israel Diamond Exchange, said Monday.

Meanwhile, Israel was said Monday to be preparing for the possibility that the Namibian government will not allow its police and forensic experts into their country, and had contacted families of the deceased in order to collect DNA samples that would be sent to Namibia for identifying the crash victims' bodies.

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