Captain Kelvin T. Soda and his fellow pilot Captain Courage Mutavirwa battled severe weather and zero visibility due to rainy and misty conditions in their final moments before the tragic Bell 430 helicopter crash near Marondera on Wednesday 5pm. The fiery accident killed all those on board, including prominent Zimbabwean tycoon Wicknell Chivayo, his wife Lucy Muteke, her personal aide Senelisiwe Magagula and the two pilots. According to Chivayo’s senior security aide, Froster Chisi — who was flying nearby in a second helicopter — the pilots were heavily disoriented by sudden, dense cloud cover, while returning to Harare via Marondera from Chivayo’s rural homestead in Gandami, Chikomba, Mashonaland East Province. Soda repeatedly radioed the second helicopter, stating: "I'm in bad weather; I haven't exited the cloud." His final transmission came as the aircraft passed over the Surrey area. When the trailing helicopter's pilot updated them that they were 10 minutes from their destination, Soda appeared confused, responding with, "Which destination?". After the second pilot answered "Marondera," there was no further communication from Chivayo's aircraft as they lost control and spiralled into catastrophic descent to horrific and fatal disaster. The helicopter crashed around 5pm local time at Kudenga Farm near Marondera (which is owned veteran chartered accountant Ngoni Kudenga and his family), roughly 88 kilometre east of Harare. The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) said early evidence shows the helicopter's tail struck the ground first, spilling fuel and immediately bursting into intense flames. Investigators have recovered an intact black box from the debris. Aviation authorities and forensic teams are actively analysing the flight recorders to officially pin down how the bad weather and spatial disorientation caused the catastrophic descent into tragic deaths.