A schoolgirl who posed proudly with her parents after her first solo fight has been killed in a crash involving the same aircraft days later.
Anika de Beer died in the blazing wreckage on the eve of her 17th birthday after she got behind the flight controls of the Piper Cherokee 28A-180 to do solo practice landings and circuits at her local airfield.
Her delighted mum Rika and dad Andries had presented their 16-year-old daughter with the traditional bottle of bubbly for her first lone flight even though she was still too young to drink.
But just days later the talented pilot is believed to have lost control and stalled as she prepared to land at Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria, South Africa, and crashed at high speed away from the runway.
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