What happened
On 7 April 2008, a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter, registration ZS-RTK, was conducting a private flight over the Oryx Safari Game Farm near Kuruman in the Northern Cape. While flying at an altitude between 50 and 100 feet, the pilot spotted a herd of antelope and initiated a left turn to view the animals. During this maneuver, the main rotor RPM began to decay.
Despite attempts to recover the rotor speed, the pilot was unable to stabilize the aircraft and was forced to execute an emergency landing in an open field. The impact was hard, causing the helicopter to skid approximately five meters before rolling onto its left side. While the aircraft sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, tail boom, and rotor blades, there were no injuries to the pilot or the two passengers on board.