Air Rhodesia Flight 827

Air Rhodesia Flight 827, the Umniati, was a scheduled flight between Kariba and Salisbury that was shot down on 12 February 1979 by Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas using a Strela 2 missile soon after take-off. The circumstances were very similar to that of Air Rhodesia Flight 825 five months earlier. To date, it remains the deadliest aviation incident in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Air Rhodesia Flight 827
Similar Air Rhodesia aircraft
Airliner shootdown
Date12 February 1979
SummaryShot down with a Strela 2 missile by ZIPRA guerrillas
SiteVuti African Purchase Area
16°25′S 29°26′E
Aircraft
Aircraft typeVickers Viscount
OperatorAir Rhodesia
RegistrationVP-YND
Flight originSalisbury Int'l Airport, Rhodesia
Last stopoverKariba, Rhodesia
DestinationSalisbury Int'l Airport, Rhodesia
Passengers55
Crew4
Fatalities59
Survivors0

Incident description

The flight's departure from Kariba had been delayed, so it did not take the time to climb over the lake to get above the ceiling of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles before heading for Salisbury. ZIPRA had information that the Rhodesian Security Forces Commander General Peter Walls was on board, and they tried to assassinate him. However he and his wife missed the flight and caught a later one, which landed safely in Salisbury. The aircraft was damaged by a SAM-7[1] missile and came down in rough terrain in the Vuti African Purchase Area east of Lake Kariba.[2] None of the 59 passengers or crew survived.[3]

Aftermath

Following the second incident, Air Rhodesia added shrouding to the exhaust pipes of their Viscount aircraft to reduce their infrared signature, and painted the aircraft with a low-radiation paint as countermeasures against heat-seeking missiles.

On 25 February 1979, the Rhodesian Air Force, with covert assistance from the South African Air Force, launched Operation Vanity, a retaliatory bombing raid against a ZIPRA camp near Livingstone, Zambia.[4]

References
  1. Again, death on "Flight SAM-7" TIME magazine and CNN
  2. Geoffrey Nyarota (2006). Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman. Zebra Books. Retrieved 18 May 2008.
  3. "Description of Air Rhodesia Flight RH827". Aviation-Safety.net. Retrieved 8 February 2008.
  4. "Rhodesian Aircraft Attack Guerrilla Camps in Zambia". 18 February 1979 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
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