As the names of victims of Flight MH17 are slowly (although still unofficially) emerging, the grief for South African Cameron Dalziel (43) has been revealed to be among those to fall victim to the tragedy. Although he is originally from Umhlanga, he had been living with his wife and two children in Malaysia following a recent career promotion for Cameron. Below he is pictured with his wife and oldest son.

Dalziel was a crew member on the former John Rolfe surf rescue helicopter for many years and later worked for various emergency rescue airlines.

For the past few years he had worked as a manager at CHC Helicopter, an international helicopter service.

According to iol, as of Sunday there was still no official word from the airline for the bereft family:

Two days after the explosion on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, in which former South African helicopter rescue pilot Cameron Dalziel and 297 others died, the airline has still not made contact with his bereft wife, Reine.

Dalziel’s sister Candice has provided Reine’s details to airline officials no fewer than three times.

Compounding the omission, the airline has refused to confirm to Dalziel’s parents, Meryll and Doug, that their son’s name was on the passenger manifest. […]

Candice said it was too early for the family to plan a memorial, but that Dalziel’s widow would be returning to Durban within days.

“Cameron was a very keen surfer, so there will obviously also be a paddle-out to celebrate his life,” she said.

We can only watch silently, grief stricken as the horrors continue to unfold from this complete mess of politics, war-games and tragedy. While this info is all from Sunday, with all the political mess surrounding the cause of the crash details are STILL sketchy for the bereaved families of MH17 passengers and crew.

More details on this local hero at iol and City Press.