Helicopter pilot Florentina Dumbu is being hailed as a ‘machine’ for evacuating 68 hikers who were trapped in a flooded Fish River Canyon in the ||Kharas region on Monday.

Dumbu (37), a police pilot, evacuated hikers over the course of six hours, after heavy rains forced NamWater to release water from the Naute Dam, flooding the canyon.

Survivors say the situation could have been catastrophic had Dumbu not arrived on time.

“There was a woman pilot, she was a machine flying people out before the main flood came,” Dolf de Wet, who was waiting for his guests to be evacuated, told The Namibian yesterday.

De Wet co-owns the White House guest farm, where hikers often stay before and after their Fish River Canyon hike.

“On Saturday night, the two big dams started overflowing. One was overflowing from one side to the other. Sunday morning at 08h00, they opened the sluices [at Naute Dam],” De Wet said.

He said he was on the sidelines, trying to coordinate with his guests and calling for more helicopters to assist.

“I got calls from Swakop, Cape Town, and Mariental [from] people who wanted to send helicopters and wanted to help.

People just want to help, it was wonderful to see,” De Wet said.

By the time two additional helicopters arrived, the police team, piloted by Dumbu, had already evacuated everybody.

FLYING LOW AND SLOW

Dumbu yesterday told The Namibian she received the first phone call requesting helicopter assistance just before 16h00 on Sunday.

The helicopter departed from Windhoek on Monday morning, arrived at Hobas at 09h30, and finished the rescue by 16h00.

“On the day, we carried out everything as per our briefing – to search from the starting point at Hobas all the way to Ai Ais,” she said.

She was accompanied by two airborne law enforcement officers, Elvis Nzwala and Gustav Isaaks.

There were low clouds at the starting point in the canyon, but the team searched wherever there was a break in clouds.

“After we evacuated the first group, the clouds cleared up and we went back to the starting point, where we found a total of 25 hikers stranded,” Dumbu said.

As the helicopter team had no communication with hikers, they relied on information from rangers and flew low and slow to ensure they find the hikers.

Dumbu has been doing rescue operations since she started flying police helicopters in 2011, including medical evacuations and search-and-rescue operations of missing persons.

“To call this heroic would take away from similar operations we have done before.

However, it brings me so much joy that lives were saved and the hikers could return home unharmed,” she said.

‘WE KNEW HELP WAS COMING’

Eric McLaren was in the canyon for the 34th time on Monday, and said the experience was extraordinary.

“Everybody’s lucky there was nobody in the water at that specific time.

The rainfall [caused the] water to rise quite quickly [on Saturday]. We were 40m up and it came right up to us by 01h00,” he says.

The water subsided on Sunday, but currents were too strong to attempt a river crossing.

“The water [from the dam] came at 09h00 on Monday, and that was unbelievable.

It just engulfed the whole riverbed.

We knew then and there that help would be on the way,” McLaren says.

He says he remembered Dumbu from a rescue operation in the canyon in 2022. He describes her as cool-headed and professional.

“We were all in awe of her professionalism. I have no idea how she kept as focused as she did throughout the day,” Eamónn Scholtz, another hiker, says.

Scholtz was part of the second-to-last group to be evacuated, and says it was reassuring to hear Dumbu’s helicopter throughout the day, knowing they would be rescued.

“Our group was extremely lucky. A lady was crossing and she was swept 500m in the water. I believe she broke something,” Sarah-Lee de Greeff, who travelled with Scholtz, says.

A hiker who could not enter the canyon on Monday says she went to the starting point to see the river.

“I’ve never seen the river so full, ever. From the starting point you could actually see the flow of the river – and that it was going to be completely impossible to hike,” Anette Grobler says.

||Kharas regional police commissioner Marius Katamila yesterday said 68 of the 96 hikers were flown out, while the others managed to reach exit points.

“We are grateful for having had the chance to act in time to evacuate all the hikers safely,” he said.

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