South African Airways Flight 295

South African Airways Flight 295
ZS-SAS, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen at Faro Airport in 1986
Accident
Date 28 November 1987 (1987-11-28)
Summary In-flight fire in cargo hold leading to loss of control and in-flight breakup; cause of fire undetermined and disputed
Site Indian Ocean, 134 nautical miles (248 km) northeast of Mauritius
19°10′30″S 59°38′0″E / 19.17500°S 59.63333°E / -19.17500; 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1)Coordinates: 19°10′30″S 59°38′0″E / 19.17500°S 59.63333°E / -19.17500; 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1)
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 747-200B Combi
Aircraft name Helderberg
Operator South African Airways
Registration ZS-SAS
Flight origin Chiang Kai Shek International Airport,
Taipei, Taiwan
Stopover Sir S. Ramgoolam International Airport,
Mauritius
Destination Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg,
South Africa
Passengers 140
Crew 19
Fatalities 159[1]
Survivors 0

South African Airways Flight 295 was a commercial flight from Taiwan to South Africa. On 28 November 1987, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 747 Combi named Helderberg, experienced a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area, broke-up in mid-air, and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board.[2][3] An extensive salvage operation was mounted to try to recover the flight data recorders, one of which was recovered from a depth of 4,900 metres (16,100 ft).

The official inquiry, headed by Judge Cecil Margo, was unable to determine the cause of the fire. This lack of a conclusion led to conspiracy theories being advanced in the years following the accident.[4]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, a Boeing 747-200B Combi registered ZS-SAS and named Helderberg, was delivered to South African Airways in 1980.[5]

The Boeing 747-200B Combi model permits the mixing of passengers and cargo on the main deck according to load factors on any given route and Class B cargo compartment regulations.[6] Flight 295 had 140 passengers and six pallets of cargo on the main deck.[5] The master waybills stated that 47,000 kilograms (104,000 lb) of baggage and cargo were loaded on the aircraft.[7] A Taiwanese customs official performed a surprise inspection of some of the cargo; he did not find any cargo that could be characterised as suspicious.[7]

History of the flight

The aircraft took off on 27 November 1987 from Taipei Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, on a flight to Johannesburg via Mauritius.[6][8]

The flight crew consisted of 49-year-old captain Dawie Uys, with 13,843 hours' experience; a 36-year-old first officer, David Attwell and a 37-year-old relief first officer Geoffrey Birchall, with 7,362 and 8,749 hours' experience respectively; and a 45-year-old flight engineer, Giuseppe (Joe) Bellagarda and a 34-year-old relief flight engineer, Alan Daniel, with 7,804 hours' and 1,595 hours' experience respectively.

Thirty-four minutes after departure, the crew contacted Hong Kong air traffic control to obtain clearance from waypoint ELATO (22°19′N 117°30′E / 22.317°N 117.500°E / 22.317; 117.500) to ISBAN. A position report was made over ELATO at 15:03:25, followed by waypoints SUNEK at 15:53:52, ADMARK at 16:09:54 and SUKAR (12°22′N 110°54′E / 12.367°N 110.900°E / 12.367; 110.900) at 16:34:47.[9] The aircraft made a routine report to the South African Airways base at Johannesburg at 15:55:18.[9]

At some point during the flight, believed to be during the beginning of its landing approach, a fire developed in the cargo section on the main deck which was probably not extinguished before impact. The 'smoke evacuation' checklist calls for the aircraft to be depressurised, and for two of the cabin doors to be opened. No evidence exists that the checklist was followed, or that the doors were opened. A crew member might have gone into the cargo hold to try to fight the fire. A charred fire extinguisher was later recovered from the wreckage on which investigators found molten metal.[7]

The following communication was recorded with Mauritius air traffic control, located at Plaisance Airport:[9][10]

The fire started to destroy the aircraft's important electrical systems, resulting in loss of communication and control of the aircraft. At exactly 00:07 UTC (4:07 local time), the aircraft broke apart in mid-air and crashed into the Indian Ocean, just about 134 Nautical Miles (154 Mi) from the Airport.[11]

After communication with Flight 295 was lost for 36 minutes, at 00:44 (04:44 local time), Air Traffic Control at Mauritius formally declared an emergency.[7]

Search and salvage

Taiwan
Johannesburg
Crash site
Mauritius
Map of the Indian Ocean, showing the origin of the flight in Taiwan, stopover in Mauritius, destination of Johannesburg and accident site near Mauritius

When the Helderberg last informed Mauritian air traffic control of its position, its report was incorrectly understood to be relative to the airport rather than its next waypoint, which caused the subsequent search to be concentrated too close to Mauritius.[9] The United States Navy sent aircraft from Diego Garcia, which were used to conduct immediate search and rescue operations in conjunction with the French Navy.[12] By the time the first surface debris was located 12 hours after impact, it had drifted considerably from the impact location. Oil slicks and eight bodies showing signs of extreme trauma appeared in the water.[7] All 140 passengers and 19 crew on the manifest were killed.

South Africa sent a total of six naval and civilian vessels to the search area.

After recovery of the wreckage from 4,000m below the surface of the ocean, the aircraft's fuselage and cabin interior were partly reassembled in one of SAA's hangars at Jan Smuts Airport where it was examined and finally opened for viewing to the airline's staff and selected members of the public.

Investigation

Rennie Van Zyl, the head Southern African investigator, examined three wristwatches from the baggage recovered from the surface; two of the watches were still running according to Taiwan time. Van Zyl deduced the approximate time of impact from the stopped watch. The aircraft crashed at 00:07:00, around three minutes after the last communication with air traffic control.[7] Immediately after the crash, the press and public opinion suspected that terrorism brought down the Helderberg. Experts searched for indicators of an explosion on the initial pieces of wreckage discovered, such as surface pitting, impact cavities and spatter cavities caused by white hot fragments from explosive devices that strike and melt metal alloys found in aircraft structures. Experts found none of this evidence.[7] The investigators drew blood samples from two of the recovered bodies and found that the bodies had soot in their tracheae, indicated that they had died from smoke inhalation before the aircraft had crashed.[7][13]

The South Africans mounted an underwater search, named Operation Resolve, to try to locate the wreckage. The underwater locator beacons (ULBs) attached to the flight recorders were not designed for deep ocean use; nevertheless, a two-month-long sonar search for them was carried out before the effort was abandoned on 8 January 1988 when the ULBs were known to have stopped transmitting (at the time a ULB had to generate sonic pulses for 30 days).[14] Steadfast Oceaneering, a specialist deep ocean recovery company in the US, was contracted at great expense to find the site and recover the flight recorders.[15] The search area is described as being comparable in size to that of the RMS Titanic, with the water at 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) being considerably deeper than any previously successful salvage operation.[16] The wreckage was found within two days of Steadfast Oceaneering commencing its search.[16]

Three debris fields were found: 19°10′30″S 59°38′0″E / 19.17500°S 59.63333°E / -19.17500; 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1), 19°9′53″S 59°38′32″E / 19.16472°S 59.64222°E / -19.16472; 59.64222 (SA Helderberg Debris Site2) and 19°9′15″S 59°37′25″E / 19.15417°S 59.62361°E / -19.15417; 59.62361 (SA Helderberg Debris Site3). These locations were spread 1.5 km (0.93 mi), 2.3 km (1.4 mi) and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) apart, indicating that the aircraft broke up in mid-air (it was suggested that the tail separated first).[17] On 6 January 1989, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was salvaged successfully from a record depth of 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Gemini,[18] but the flight data recorder was never found.[13]

Van Zyl took the voice recorder to the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington, DC, to show his goodwill and to ensure neutral observers.[7] Van Zyl believes that if he kept the CVR in South Africa he could have been accused of covering up the truth.[7] At the NTSB, Van Zyl felt frustration that the degraded (but still functional) CVR, which had been in the deep ocean for fourteen months,[18] did not initially yield any useful information. Around 28 minutes into the recording the CVR indicated that the fire alarm sounded. Fourteen seconds after the fire alarm, the circuit breakers began to pop. Investigators believe that around 80 circuit breakers failed. The CVR cable failed 81 seconds after the alarm. The recording revealed the extent of the fire.[7]

Van Zyl discovered that the front-right pallet was the "seat" of the fire. The manifest said that pallet mostly comprised computers in polystyrene packaging. The investigators said that the localised fire likely came in contact with the packaging and produced gases that accumulated near the ceiling. They also said that gases ignited into a flash fire that affected the entire cargo hold. The cargo fire of Flight 295 did not burn lower than one metre above the cargo floor. The walls and ceiling of the cargo hold received severe fire damage. Van Zyl ended his investigation without discovering why the fire started.[7]

The official report noted the presence of the computer equipment, and suggested that a possible cause could have been the lithium batteries contained in the computers exploding or spontaneously combusting, although this was not given as a conclusive cause of the fire.[19]

Margo commission

An official commission of inquiry was chaired by Judge Cecil Margo,[13][20] with co-operation from the NTSB and the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing.

The official report determined that while the Helderberg was over the Indian Ocean, a fire had occurred in the cargo hold of the main deck, originating in the front right-hand cargo pallet.[13] Aircraft parts recovered from the ocean floor showed fire damage sustained in temperatures over 300 °C (570 °F); tests showed that temperatures of 600 °C (1,100 °F) would have been required to melt a carbon-fibre tennis racket recovered from the crash site. The reason for the aircraft's loss was not identified beyond doubt, but there were two possibilities detailed in the official report: firstly, that the crew became incapacitated due to smoke penetrating into the cockpit;[13] and secondly, that the fire weakened the structure so that the tail separated, leading to impact with the ocean. The commission concluded that it was not possible to apportion blame to any one individual for the fire, removing any terrorism concerns.[21] The manufacturer is quoted in the report as having "contested" any scenario that involved a break-up of the aircraft, hence the commission went no further than simply mentioning the two possible scenarios in its final report, as incidental to the primary cause of the accident.[17]

The commission determined that inadequate fire detection and suppression facilities in the class B cargo bays (the type used aboard the 747-200 Combi) were the primary cause of the aircraft's loss.[4] The accident alerted aviation authorities worldwide to the fact that the regulations regarding class B cargo bays had lagged far behind the growth in their capacity. The exact source of ignition was never determined, but the report concluded that there was sufficient evidence to confirm that the fire had burned for some considerable time and that it might have caused structural damage.[22]

Combi design

The crash was the first fire incident on the 747 Combi and one of few fires on widebody aircraft. Fred Bereswill, the investigator from Boeing, characterised the Flight 295 fire as significant for this reason. Barry Strauch of the NTSB visited Boeing's headquarters to inquire about the Combi's design. Boeing's fire test in the Combi models did not accurately match the conditions of the Helderberg's cargo hold; in accordance with federal US rules, the Boeing test involved setting a bale of tobacco leaves ablaze. The fire stayed within the cargo hold. The air in the passenger cabin was designed to have a marginally higher pressure than cargo area hold, so if a crew member opened the door to the cargo hold, the air from the passenger cabin would flow into the cargo hold, stopping any smoke or gases from exiting through the door.[7]

Investigators devised a new test involving a cargo hold with conditions similar to the conditions of Flight 295; the plastic covers and extra pallets provided fuel for the fire, which would spread quickly before generating enough smoke to activate smoke alarms. The hotter flame achieved in the new test heated the air in the cargo hold. This heated air had a higher pressure than normal, and overcame the pressure differential between the cargo hold and the passenger cabin. When the door between the passenger and cargo holds was open, smoke and gases therefore flowed into the passenger cabin.[7]

The test as well as evidence from the accident site proved to the investigators that the 747 Combi's use of a class B cargo hold did not provide enough fire protection to the passengers.[23][24] The FAA confirmed this finding in 1993 with its own series of tests.[25]

After the accident, South African Airways discontinued use of the Combi and the Federal Aviation Administration introduced new regulations in 1993 specifying that manual fire fighting must not be the primary means of fire suppression in the cargo compartment of the main deck.[26][27] Complying with these new standards required weight increases, which made the 747 Combi no longer viable. Nevertheless, the Combi remained in the 747 product line up until 2002, when the last 747-400 Combi was delivered to KLM.[28]

The cenotaph of the South African Airways 295 accident, located near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The cenotaph reads South African Airways Air Disaster Cenotaph (南非航空公司空難紀念碑, Hanyu Pinyin: Nánfēi Hángkōng Gōngsī Kōngnàn Jìnìanbēi, literally South African Airways Air Crash Memorial Stone)

Conspiracy theories regarding the cause of the fire

In January 1992, the journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) reported that the inquiry into the in-flight fire that destroyed SAA Flight 295 might be reopened because the airline had allegedly confirmed that its passenger jets had carried cargo for Armscor, a South African arms agency. The RAeS journal, Aerospace, asserted: "It is known that the crew and passengers were overcome by a main deck cargo fire, and the ignition of missile rocket fuel is one cause now under suspicion."[29] A complaint against the newspaper that first published the allegations, Weekend Star, was lodged by Armscor.[30]

But the inquiry was not reopened, and this might be why a number of conspiracy theories were spawned concerning the nature of the cargo that caused the fire, which subsequently increased public doubts about the outcome of the initial inquiry.[31] Examples of such theories include:

  • The SADF was smuggling the hoax substance red mercury on the flight for its atomic bomb project.
  • Reports from the Project Coast investigation suggested there was a waybill showing that 300 grams of activated carbon had been placed on board the Helderberg, leading to speculation that this substance had caused the fire.[32]

The television show Carte Blanche dedicated an investigation to a number of these allegations.[33]

A South African government chemist examined a microscopic particle on the nylon netting next to the front-right pallet on Flight 295. The chemist found that the airflow patterns on the iron suggested that it travelled at a high velocity while in a molten state; therefore the fire on Flight 295 may have not been a flash fire triggered by packaging.[7] Fred Bereswill, the investigator from Boeing, said that this would suggest that the source of the fire would have had properties like a sparkler, with the source including its own oxidising agent. A British fire and explosion analyst examined the exterior skin of the aircraft which had been located above the pallet; the analyst found that the skin became as hot as 300 degrees Celsius. Bereswill said that it would be difficult for a fire to burn through the skin of an aircraft in-flight because of the cool airflow outside the aircraft.[7]

David Klatzow's theory

Dr David Klatzow was one of the forensic scientists who, by his own admission, was retained to work on the case by Boeing's counsel around the time of the official enquiry.[34] He subsequently criticised the Margo commission for spending an inordinate amount of time looking into "relatively irrelevant issues" and that the commission ignored the most important question: what was the source of the fire and who had been responsible for loading it onto the aircraft. Klatzow believes that there are certain irregularities in parts of the commission transcript that indicate that something on the CVR transcript had to be concealed.[35]

Klatzow put forward a theory that the fire likely involved substances that would not normally be carried on a passenger aircraft and that the fire was not likely a wood, cardboard, or plastic fire.[7] South Africa was under an arms embargo at the time; the South African government therefore had to buy arms clandestinely.[36] His theory postulates that the South African government placed a rocket system in the cargo hold, and that vibration caused unstable ammonium perchlorate to ignite.[37]

Klatzow contends that conversation of the crew suggests that the fire started above the South China Sea, shortly after takeoff; he believes that this indicates that the voice recorder was not working for a long period of the flight or that the crew turned it off (Cockpit Voice Recorders in aircraft at that time only recorded 30 minutes[38] ). If this is the case, he says it is then likely that an unknown number of the passengers would have already died from smoke inhalation from the first fire. Klatzow believes that theory is consistent with reports that find most of the passengers were in the first class area at the front of the aircraft as smoke from the rear cabin forced them to move forward. The captain did not land the aircraft directly after the fire, Klatzow argues, because if he had he would have been arrested for endangering the lives of his passengers and it would have caused a major problem for South Africa, costing the country and SAA R400 million. Klatzow argues that the captain, who was also a reservist in the South African Air Force, would therefore have been ordered to carry on to South Africa in hopes of making it there before the aircraft's structural integrity gave in.[39] These points have been refuted by others.[40]

On 20 July 2011, retired SAA captain Clair Fichardt announced that he had made a statement in connection with the missing Jan Smuts air traffic control tapes, after he was persuaded to do so by Klatzow.[41] Fichardt claimed that captain James Deale admitted to handing the tapes to captain Mickey Mitchell, who was chief pilot at the Johannesburg control centre on the night of the crash. Deale would further have stated that Gert van der Veer, head of SAA, and lawyer Ardie Malherbe were present during the transfer of the tapes. Earlier, during the TRC hearings, Klatzow had cross-examined Van der Veer, Mitchell and Vernon Nadel, the Operations Officer who was on duty.[42]

Post-apartheid investigation

In 1996, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the post-apartheid South African Government, investigated apartheid era atrocities. In particular, the Helderberg accident was investigated to determine if there was any truth behind conspiracy theories that asserted that the Margo Commission had covered up or missed any evidence that might implicate the previous government.[31] David Klatzow was invited by the TRC to explain his theories and cross-examine witnesses. Unlike most other hearings of the TRC, the hearing into SA 295 was conducted in camera,[34] and without any representation from the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA);[40] Klatzow considered the CAA untrustworthy because it had participated in the official enquiry, which he considered flawed. A number of key aspects of Klatzow's theory hinged on his criticism of the actions of Judge Margo during the official enquiry, yet Judge Margo was not summoned to answer any of the allegations made against him.[34]

The commission concluded that nothing listed in the cargo manifest could have caused the fire. Following public pressure, the TRC records were released into the public domain in May 2000. Upon receiving the documents, Transport Minister Dullah Omar stated that the inquiry would be reopened if any fresh evidence was discovered.[43] The police were tasked to investigate whether there was any new evidence, and to make a recommendation to the minister. In October 2002, the minister announced that no new evidence had been found to justify re-opening the enquiry.[44][31]

On the 25th anniversary of the crash, Peter Otzen Jnr, the son of one of the victims, announced that he was approaching the South African Constitutional Court in an attempt to have the commission of inquiry into the disaster reopened.[45] In pursuit of this, he has obtained affidavits from former SAA employees who had never before given evidence. An Australian, Allan Dexter, had given a sworn statement to Mr. Otzen claiming that he had been informed by the SAA Manager at Taipei airport that the Helderberg was carrying rocket fuel, which caused it to crash.[46]

Newer theories

In 2014, the South African investigative journalist Mark D. Young presented a theory that a short circuit in the onboard electronics may have caused the fire.[47][48] The so-called wet arc tracking arises from the action of moisture when the insulation of live wires is damaged. A leakage current to another damaged wire with the respective potential difference may form. The resulting flashover may reach temperatures of up to 5,000 °C (9,000 °F). This temperature is sufficient to ignite the thermal-acoustic insulation blankets that were still used until the late 1990s. Such a short circuit caused the fire on board Swissair Flight 111, resulting in the crash of the aircraft in 1998.

Passengers and crew

Passengers and crew nationalities on board SAA Flight 295:[49]

Nationality Passengers Crew Total
Australia Australia2-2
Denmark Denmark1-1
West Germany West Germany1-1
Hong Kong Hong Kong2-2
Japan Japan47-47
South Korea South Korea1-1
Mauritius Mauritius2-2
Netherlands Netherlands1-1
South Africa South Africa521971
Taiwan Taiwan30-30
United Kingdom United Kingdom1-1
Total14019159[50]

Taiwanese authorities stated that 58 passengers began flying in Taipei, including 30 Taiwanese citizens, 19 South Africans, 3 Japanese, two Mauritians, one Dane, one Netherlander, one Briton, and one West German. The other passengers transferred from other flights arriving in Taipei, and as such their nationalities were not known to Taiwanese authorities.[51]

At least two passengers died of smoke inhalation. The rest died from the extreme trauma sustained in the crash.[7]

Notable passengers

  • Kazuharu Sonoda, A Japanese professional wrestler also known as Haru Sonoda (Magic Dragon), and his bride, Mayumi Sonoda (薗田 真弓, Sonoda Mayumi), were on board Flight 295.[52]

Dramatization

The crash was featured in Season 5 of the Canadian made, internationally distributed documentary series Mayday, in the episode "Fanning the Flames".[7]

Further reading

  • Lillie, Joanne; Luck, Dominique (2014). Surviving 295: Life After the Helderberg. Cape Town: Jacana Media. .

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
  2. ↑ Watt 1990.
  3. ↑ Marsh et al. 1994, p. 14.
  4. 1 2 Marsh et al. 1994, p. 19.
  5. 1 2 Marsh et al. 1994.
  6. 1 2 Marsh et al. 1994.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "Fanning the Flames / Cargo Conspiracy". Mayday (Canadian TV series) (Television production). Season 5. OCLC 829959853.
  8. ↑ "SAA 'murdered people aboard Helderberg'." IOL.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Margo 1990.
  10. ↑ Hopkins & Hilton 2005.
  11. ↑ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
  12. ↑ Dreyer 2006, p. 261.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Marsh et al. 1994, p. 18.
  14. ↑ Mueller 1998.
  15. ↑ Kutzleb 1988.
  16. 1 2 Strümpfer 2006.
  17. 1 2 Marsh et al. 1994, p. 16.
  18. 1 2 Marsh et al. 1994, p. 17.
  19. ↑ "This Wouldn't Be The First Time A Plane Mysteriously Disappeared Into The Indian Ocean". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  20. ↑ "Selective Summary of evidence given at the inquiry on the disaster involving the Helderberg (Flight SA 295 on 28 November 1987)". South African Government. 18 August 2000. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  21. ↑ Klatzow 2010, p. 167.
  22. ↑ Marsh et al. 1994, pp. 18–19.
  23. ↑ Cheney, Daniel I. (2010). Lessons Learned from Transport Airplane Accidents (PDF). Sixth Triennial International Fire and Cabin Safety Research Conference. Atlantic City: Federal Aviation Administration.
  24. ↑ "Designee Newsletter" (PDF). Transport Airplane Directorate, Federal Aviation Administration. 1 April 1989. pp. 12–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  25. ↑ Dickerson & Blake 1993.
  26. ↑ "Lessons Learned From Transport Airplane Accidents: Fire". Federal Aviation Administration. Archived from the original on 25 February 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  27. ↑ "Airworthiness Directive 93-07-15". Federal Aviation Administration. 2 May 1993.
  28. ↑ "Boeing". boeing.com.
  29. ↑ "Aerospace". 19. Royal Aeronautical Society. January 1992: 4.
  30. ↑ Klatzow 2010, p. 168.
  31. 1 2 3 Omar 2002.
  32. ↑ Burger 2000.
  33. ↑ "Helderberg Conspiracy" (PDF) (PDF). Carte Blanche.
  34. 1 2 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1 June 1998). "Special Hearing: Helderberg Flight". Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, archived on 20 May 2007. Archived from the original on 22 April 2004. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  35. ↑ Klatzow 2010, p. 168,174.
  36. ↑ Crawford & Klotz 1999, p. 53.
  37. ↑ Klatzow 2010, p. 172,177,189.
  38. ↑ "History of Flight Recorders". L-3 Aviation Recorders (L-3AR). Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  39. ↑ Klatzow 2010, p. 177-182,186.
  40. 1 2 Kirby 1998.
  41. ↑ Zwecker 2011, p. 9.
  42. ↑ Urquhart 2000, p. 9.
  43. ↑ Lund 2000.
  44. ↑ Welsh & Whale 2001.
  45. ↑ "The Witness". witness.co.za.
  46. ↑ Ray White. "Alleged cause of Helderberg plane exposed". ewn.co.za.
  47. ↑ Homepage von M D Young
  48. ↑ politicsweb 20 February 2015
  49. ↑ "Jet debris found in Indian Ocean." Associated Press at the Houston Chronicle. Friday 29 January 1988. Page 15.
  50. ↑ "Five Bodies Found After Jet Crash". The New York Times. Associated Press. 30 November 1987. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  51. ↑ "Plane carrying 155 crashes in Indian Ocean Archived 14 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine.." Houston Chronicle.
  52. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Haru Sonoda Magic Dragon - Wrestlers Database". www.cagematch.net.

Bibliography

  • Burger, Marlene (20 May 2000). "Basson Link to Helderberg Crash Probed". Independent Online. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  • Crawford, Neta; Klotz, Audie (1999). How Sanctions Work: Lessons From South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 53. ISBN 0-312-21856-7.
  • Dickerson, Leroy; Blake, David (February 1993). "Effectiveness of Hand-Held Fire Extinguishers on Cargo Container Fires" (pdf). Atlantic City: Federal Aviation Administration.
  • Dreyer, Nadine (2006). A Century of Sundays. Zebra. p. 261. ISBN 1-77007-106-7. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
  • Hopkins, Pat; Hilton-Barber, Bridget (2005). Worst Journeys. Zebra. ISBN 1-77007-101-6.
  • Kirby, Robert (26 June 1998). "Helderberg: The Search for Invisible Blame". Mail and Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  • Klatzow, David (2010). Steeped in Blood: The Life and Times of a Forensic Scientist. Cape Town, South Africa: Zebra Press. ISBN 978-1-86872-922-7.
  • Kutzleb, Michael K. (1988). "The Search for South African Airways Flight 295". Oceans '88 Proceedings: A Partnership of Marine Interests : Conference. IEEE. §4.
  • Lund, Troye (24 May 2000). "Helderberg: SAA May Face R2bn in Claims". Cape Argus.
  • Margo, Cecil (14 May 1990). Report of the Board of Inquiry into the Helderberg Air Disaster (PDF) (Report). Pretoria: South African Civil Aviation Authority. ISBN 0-621-13030-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2011.
  • Marsh, Rob (1994). Hermann, Hilda; van Rooyen, Annlerie; van der Westhuizen, Aletta, eds. Verlore Skakels: Onverklaarde Geheime van Suider-Afrika (in Afrikaans) (1st ed.). Struik Publishers (Pty) Ltd. ISBN 1-86825-407-0.
  • Mueller, A.G. (1988). Report About the Search for the Wreck of the B74 M of South African Airways, Lost Over the Indian Ocean on November 28, 1987, Flight SA295, Taipei-Mauritius (Report). Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  • Omar, Dullah (11 October 2002). "Press Statement: The Enquiry into the Helderberg Disaster of 28 November 1987" (Press release). Pretoria: Ministry of Transport. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  • Strümpfer, Johan (16 October 2006). "Deep Ocean Search Planning: A Case Study of problem Solving".
  • Urquhart, Craig (24 May 2000). "TRC Could Reveal Truth About Crash". Cape Times. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  • Watt, Ronnie (1990). "Helderberg Death Flight SA 295". Southern. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  • Welsh, J.I.; Whale, M.B. (21 May 2001). Preliminary Report: Helderberg Plane Disaster (Report). Pretoria: Directorate of Special Operations. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  • Wessels, Andre (20 April 2007). "The South African Navy During The Years of Conflict in Southern Africa, 1966–1989". Sabinet Online Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  • Zwecker, Wolfram (21 July 2011). "Helderberg: Hý vat opnames" [Helderberg: He took recordings]. Beeld (in Afrikaans). Johannesburg. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
External images
Photos at withmaliceandforethought.com/
Pre-Crash photos of ZS-SAS from Airliners.net
  • Partially Real ATC Recording An MP3 format of part of the actual ATC recording. The real recording starts at 21 minutes. It is slightly abridged, with some empty sound cut short.
  • "'We are going to die,' said crew member". Houston Chronicle. 6 December 1987. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  • Vol South African Airways 295 : Maldonne à Pretoria (French)
  • “We have a smoke problem in the aeroplane!” Die “Helderberg”-Tragödie (German)
  • "SAA 747 Wreckage Examined in Detail" a 1989 Flight article


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