Pretoria - Nine people, including the CEO of tile company Italtile, have been killed in a plane crash near Plettenberg Bay.
According to Italtile's board of directors, the group's CEO Gianpaolo Ravazzotti and eight of his colleagues and business partners died as a result of the crash on Tuesday.
The National Sea Rescue Institute located the wreckage of the aircraft they were travelling in and discovered the bodies on Wednesday.
The aircraft, which belongs to Italtile Ltd, was travelling between Queenstown and Plettenberg Bay.
After it failed to make its scheduled landing on Tuesday a full search and rescue operation got underway.
The wreckage was found near the Robberg Nature Reserve.
"On behalf of the Board, I express my heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the Chairman of the Group, Mr Gianni Ravazzotti, his wife Annabel and their daughters and Gianpaolo's wife, Vanessa and their children, as well as the families of all of the deceased.
"The Group will ensure that every effort is made to provide the counselling and support required by those affected by this tragedy," Italtile's chief financial officer Peter Swatton said.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident.
