William saddened by death of British pilot shot by elephant poachers in Tanzania

Roger Gower, 37, managed to land his stricken helicopter safely, saving the life of a South African colleague, before succumbing to gunshot fired by poaching gang from high-powered rifle

Hero Edgbaston pilot Roger Gower saved helicopter passenger's life

The Duke of Cambridge has said he is “very saddened” by the death of a British helicopter pilot shot dead by elephant poachers in Tanzania, as it emerged the mortally wounded flyer saved his colleague’s life by fighting to land safely before dying.

Roger Gower, 37, was flying at low-level during an anti-poaching mission searching for gunmen who had killed three elephants when they broke cover and shot at him from the ground with a high-calibre rifle.

A bullet is understood to have passed up through the floor of the aluminium and fibre-glass helicopter, hitting Mr Gower first in the leg then in the shoulder before exiting through the roof.

Despite being mortally injured, he brought the damaged helicopter down into a tree before it hit land, preventing it from exploding and saving his South African colleague, Nicky Bester. Mr Bester was able to jump to safety as the aircraft came to land and hid from the poachers in a thicket.

The Duke, who was campaigned against the poaching trade in Africa, said he did not personally know Mr Gower, but paid tribute to the pilot.

The site of the wreckage in the Maswa Wildlife Reserve

A statement from Kensington Palace said: “He was very saddened to hear of yet more lives lost due to poaching.”

Photographs showed the stricken aircraft lying in the savannah grass on its side, bullet holes clearly visible in its chassis and its seats spattered with blood.

Tanzanian police arrested three men, Jumanne Maghembe, Tanzania's natural resources and tourism minister, said. “This is a tragic, very sad and extremely unfortunate event,” he told The Telegraph.

"The suspects are in the hands of police," he said. "They are cooperating, and soon more people making up the poaching gang will be netted and brought to justice."

Friends and family paid tribute to the former accountant from Birmingham who retrained as a pilot and moved to east Africa eight years ago to fly touristic safaris and, latterly, anti-poaching operations with the Friedkin Conservation Fund (FCS).

Andy Payne, Mr Gower’s colleague and housemate, described him as a “respected and professional pilot” who was becoming increasingly invested in working to stop the “wanton killing” of Tanzania’s elephants.

Pratik Patel, another contemporary of the FCS, said he had been "a great guy, a great friend, a great pilot".

Despite his injures, Mr Gower brought the damaged helicopter down into a tree before it hit land saving his colleague

"Roger was an amazing person, an amazing character, full of joy, full of life,” he said. “He loved Africa, he loved Tanzania and he loved being in the bush."

Tanzania has lost two thirds of its elephant population in just four years up to 2014 as demand from Asia for their tusks for carved trinkets set an army of well-armed and resourced poachers into its game reserves and national parks.

Mr Gower and Mr Bester had been sent to track the poachers after reports came in about shots heard in the bush around 12 miles from their base, and two elephants having been killed.

As they hovered over a third elephant carcass they had discovered, the poachers broke cover.

“They must have very close to them because one of the poachers fired at Roger,” Mr Payne said.

“Roger was injured but thankfully he was flying low and slow and under the circumstances, he did a fantastic job of putting the helicopter down in a way that his colleague was able to walk away with minor injuries. It was a hard landing but he managed to roll it onto its side.”

The downed helicopter belonging to Roger Gower

Mr Bester leapt out of the helicopter midair as it crashed and was injured, according to a spokesman from the Tanzania's National Parks, Pascal Shelutete.

"Three elephant carcasses that were found indicated that whoever shot the chopper down was on a serious illegal hunting spree," he said, adding such poachers can be "heavily armed with sophisticated military weaponry".

Although the aircraft grounded deep in the bush, Mr Bester had a satellite phone as well as a radio and GPS and was able to call for help. When it arrived, Mr Gower could not be saved but his colleague was taken to hospital.

Mr Payne said his late friend had always been safety-conscious. "He always erred on the side of caution, would pay attention to aviation accident reports and we would discuss them to ensure we would never fall into those traps," he said.

Mr Payne added that he, Mr Gower and Mr Bester shared a house near their base in Arusha. He said his friend was “obviously very shaken up but recovering well physically”.

“He has some non-life threatening injuries from the heavy landing but it could have been much worse,” he said. “He and Roger worked together a lot, all three of us have been friends from before Roger joined us last year but it was the first time we’d all worked together and it was great.”

Prof Maghembe praised Mr Gower’s actions in bring the helicopter safely to the ground. “They were lucky in the sense that the helicopter hit a tree before it hit the ground, so that reduced the impact and it did not explode as it might have,” he said.

He said that the new administration of John Magufuli, the president who has been hailed for his anti-corruption efforts, was determined to crack down on poaching, pointing to a series of arrests of crime syndicate kingpins in recent months.

“As long as there is a big market for ivory, they will give us trouble, but I am very hopeful that we will put a stop to this problem,” he said. “We are tracking down the kings and queens who run this business. I hope in two or three months we should be able to reduce these things to nearly zero.”

Mr Payne said Maswa, on the edge of the fabled Serengeti National Park, had been blighted by the same poaching epidemic that had hit other parks and reserves in Tanzania but that the efforts of the FCS and others were helping turn the corner.

Mr Gower flew primarily tourist safaris but had become increasingly passionate about anti-poaching operations, he said.

“The more you get involved, the more you are exposed to it, seeing the wanton killing, the more you want to be able to stop it in whatever way you can,” he said.

“We want Roger’s family and parents to know what he did in terms of making a difference to Tanzanian wildlife and knowing he had so much support behind him and that we will do all we can to find out who did this.”

Roger Gower was taking part in an anti-poaching operation with authorities in Tanzania

He said that in FCS’s seven years of tracking poachers - who are employed by criminal syndicates but are usually impoverished local villagers - there had rarely been violent confrontations.

“Rangers and game scouts on the ground confront them all the time and every year there’s a handful of people killed,” he said.

“It’s the first time one of our aircraft has come under fire and we have paid the most tragic price.”

Mr Gower’s parents, thought to be solicitors working in the Midlands, were due to arrive in Tanzania this weekend to meet his colleagues and find out more from police about what happened.

Meanwhile his friends and family posted tributes on social media using the hashtag #flyhighcaptainroger.

Jo South, Mr Gower’s cousin, wrote: “My amazing cousin, forever in our hearts. So very proud.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tanzania/12132450/British-pilot-shot-by-elephant-poachers-in-Tanzania-saved-passenger.html