The aviation community is in mourning following the tragic death of 24-year-old Leeché Manuel, a rising star in the South African skies whose life was cut short in a horrific aircraft crash this weekend. But it is a haunting social media post, shared just ten days before the accident, that has left his followers and family with chills.
Leeché, a brilliant young pilot from Durban and a recipient of the prestigious KZN Premier’s Bursary, was undergoing specialised training in the North West when his light aircraft went down near Sofasonke. Both Leeché and his instructor were killed instantly in the wreckage. Just weeks earlier, he had been celebrated as a beacon of hope for the youth, having moved to Gauteng to pursue his dream of becoming a commercial pilot.
In a video posted to Instagram and TikTok less than a fortnight ago, Leeché shared a montage of his flights, set to a poignant soundtrack. The caption read: "And if one day you never hear from me again….remember me on every plane you see passing by." At the time, friends laughed it off as a poetic tribute to his passion for flying. Today, those words serve as a heartbreaking epitaph for a young man who seemed to sense his time was limited.
KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli, who had personally awarded Leeché his bursary, expressed his profound grief. "We have lost a future leader of our aviation industry," he said. "Leeché was a symbol of what our youth can achieve with hard work and opportunity." As investigators comb through the debris to find the cause of the crash, the "wheels and wings" that Leeché loved so much have become the instruments of a tragedy that has touched the hearts of the entire nation.
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