A History of Plane Crashes in South Africa

Jun 02, 2025 0

South Africa has experienced several notable aviation accidents throughout its history. These incidents have led to investigations, safety improvements, and, in some cases, enduring mysteries. This article examines some of the most significant plane crashes in South Africa's aviation history.

South African Airways Flight 406 "Rietbok"

South African Airways flight 406, a Vickers Viscount, crashed into the sea while on approach to East London Airport, South Africa, killing all 25 occupants. Vickers Viscount ZS-CVA, named "Rietbok", was on a scheduled public transport flight SA406 from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg via East London and Bloemfontein, South Africa.

At Port Elizabeth crew took on board 2,000 lb of fuel in excess of the normal sector fuel uplift, on the basis that they may had to overfly East London and proceed to Bloemfontein due to poor weather at East London. The flight made a normal takeoff from Port Elizabeth at 16:41 UTC and climbed to Flight Level 90. At 16:58 UTC the aircraft contacted East London Airport Control and was given a weather report: 8/8ths Nimbo Stratus at 200 feet to 300 feet overhead, lowering on the approaches to runway 28; continuous drizzle; visibility 3/4 of a mile; ground temperature plus 16°C.; QNH 1025.

At 16:59 UTC the aircraft acknowledged the weather and requested descent clearance from Flight Level 90. Clearance was given by East London Tower and acknowledged. At 17:07 UTC the flight was cleared for a runway 10 approach. The last radio transmission was at 17:09 UTC when the flight reported at 2000 feet with the coast line in sight. The airplane impacted the sea at high speed about 17:10 UTC. Bits of floating wreckage, consisting mainly of cabin interior fittings, were recovered by naval vessels and other pieces were washed ashore.

The main wreckage of the aircraft is believed to he lying at a depth of between 180 and 220 feet, approximately 1½ miles off-shore. Extensive salvage operations were attempted, but were hindered by murky water, a current up to 8 kts. and dangerous sea conditions.

The probable cause was determined to be that "The available data is not sufficient for the originating cause of the accident to be determined with any degree of probability. In the opinion of the Board certain possibilities can be excluded as being consistent with the evidence and/or as being remote and improbable; among these possibilities are structural failure, failure of the controls, or control surfaces, multiple engine failure, instrument failure, explosion, fire, a 'bad weather' accident and pilot error.

Plane SNAPS in half over the ocean | The REAL story of South African 295

South African Airways Flight 295 "Helderberg"

During the early hours of November 28, 1987, communication with South African Airlines (SAA) flight SA295, registration ZS-SAS, was lost. The aircraft, a Boeing 747 Combi, experienced a devastating in-flight fire in the cargo area before crashing into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board. The incident would prove to be a complicated case, resulting in numerous debates and conspiracy theories, with certain aspects remaining unclear even to this day.

Aircraft and Loss

The aircraft, named the Helderberg, was a modified version of the 747 that could transport both passengers and cargo in the main deck. Known as a ‘Combi’ (short for combination), the model included a moveable partition separating passengers from cargo, allowing airlines to be flexible when it came to the volume of cargo they transported.

In a time of Apartheid political tension, SAA, the flag carrier for South Africa, was facing airspace restrictions over numerous African states. Confronted with having to fly longer routes such as the one taken by Flight 295, the versatile Combi proved to be an economical choice of transport for the airline.

On the afternoon of November 27, at 14:23 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), SAA 295 departed Taipei, bound for Johannesburg, South Africa with a stopover in Plaine Magnien, Mauritius. The flight had 140 passengers and six pallets of cargo on the main deck as well. A flight crew of 19 were also onboard the aircraft.

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At 23:48 UTC over the Indian Ocean, the captain contacted Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Mauritius Plaisance Airport and declared an emergency. The smoke alarm indicated that a fire had developed in the cargo section on the main deck. The last reported communication was at 00:04 UTC, November 28. All efforts by ATC to reestablish contact were to no avail. As day broke, the first signs of floating wreckage were spotted on the surface of the Indian Ocean. The Helderberg had been lost, leaving no survivors.

Fire on the Helderberg and Subsequent Investigation

Among the first sources of evidence were debris floating on the surface of the ocean. For example, the Republic of South Africa (RSA) report mentions two damaged wristwatches, which stopped at 00:07 UTC. The time shown on the broken watches suggests the impact occurred just four minutes after the last communication, indicating Heldeberg’s demise was sudden.

The RSA report said some of the recovered items such as cabin paneling, furnishings and cargo showed traces of fire damage, such as heat discoloration and soot. In addition, scorched insulation wiring, a fire extinguisher with molten plastic on its surface and a melted graphite tennis racket all indicated an exceptionally fierce fire onboard, which had somehow originated in the main-deck cargo hold.

The underwater wreckage was located on January 28, 1988. Remains from the passenger cabin of the rearmost galley along with the fuselage from the main deck cargo hold and a section of the rear pressure bulkhead all showed heat damage. Pieces of the forward left main deck cargo floor were also found to have accumulated melted aluminum and nylon on the upper surface, reinforcing suspicion of a fierce fire in the main-deck cargo hold that engulfed the flight.

Dealing a blow to the investigation, the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) was not recovered. However, the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was and yielded evidence that the crew were aware of a fire on the main deck cargo hold. Moreover, the sound indicated the audio was being affected by the fire and ultimately disabled it.

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The Cause of the Fire Remains a Mystery

The joint investigation by the RSA with aid from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) concluded that the cause of the loss of SAA 295 was an in-flight fire, which eventually led to the plane crashing into the ocean. Investigators determined that the fire had originated in the main deck cargo hold.

“From evidence pieced together it is clear that a fire commenced in the front pallet, on the right-hand side in the main deck cargo hold”, the RSA report stated. “The fire developed rapidly and could not be controlled”.

According to the cargo log, SAA 295 was transporting six pallets of cargo, consisting of a mixture of electronic components including computer hardware, various paper documents, textiles, medicines and sports equipment.

Evidence pieced together indicates that a fire commenced in the front pallet on the right-hand side (pallet N° PR) in the main upper deck cargo hold. The fire developed rapidly and could not be controlled. It generated smoke and carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, some of which penetrated the passenger cabin and possibly the cockpit.

Post-mortems indicated traces of soot in the victims’ respiratory passages, with carbon monoxide intoxication cited as a contributor in the cause of death Additionally, the fire caused a number of plastic supports for the insulation blankets to melt and damaged some of the blankets themselves. Such evidence reinforced the notion of the fire’s intensity and destruction.

“The effects of the fire eventually led to the aircraft crashing into the sea”, stated in the RSA report. The report also criticized the Combi for its inadequacy in terms of fire protection for passengers.

The exact source of the fire remains unknown. The RSA report concluded there was nothing in the cargo contents in pallet N° PR that could be described as dangerous goods.

“Some of the computers consigned in pallet N° PR and other pallets were fitted with nickel-cadmium or lithium batteries, but under the circumstances those items were not likely to any ignition or explosion.”

“The combustion included cardboard and plastic materials, but the actual source of ignition cannot be determined,” the report explained. “Nevertheless, the possibility of misdeclaration or even false declaration in the consignment notes of the cargo manifest cannot be ruled out completely,” the report continued.

Given the political tensions at the time, the crash of flight 295 caused speculation about what had been put onboard the aircraft, something which persists today.

South African Airways Flight 228

South African Airways Flight 228 was a scheduled flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to London, England. The Boeing 707-300C operating the flight, which was only six weeks old, flew into the ground soon after take-off after a scheduled stopover in Windhoek, South West Africa (present day Namibia) on 20 April 1968. Five passengers survived, while 123 people died.

The subsequent investigation determined that the accident was attributable largely to pilot error; the manufacturer subsequently also recognised the lack of a ground proximity warning system in its aircraft.

Details of the Accident

The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1968, was a Boeing 707-344C registered as ZS-EUW with serial number 19705. The flight route was Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg, to Heathrow Airport via Windhoek, Luanda, Las Palmas, and Frankfurt.

The first leg of the flight from Johannesburg to JG Strijdom Airport, Windhoek, South West Africa, was uneventful. An additional 46 passengers embarked in Windhoek, and some airfreight was unloaded and loaded.

The aircraft took off from Windhoek on runway 08 at 18:49 GMT (20:49 local time). Fifty seconds after take-off, it flew into the ground in flight configuration at a speed of approximately 271 knots (502 km/h; 312 mph). The four engines, which were the first parts of the aircraft to touch the ground, created four gouges in the soil before the rest of the aircraft also hit the ground and broke up.

Two fires immediately broke out when the aircraft's fuel tanks ignited. Although the crash site was only 5,327 metres (17,477 ft) from the end of the runway, emergency services took 40 minutes to reach the scene because of rugged terrain.

After investigating this accident, as well as a number of others that also involved controlled flight into terrain, the Federal Aviation Administration determined that a ground proximity warning system would have helped prevent some of the accidents.

South African Airways Flight SA8625 Incident

Flight SA8625 departed from Cape Town International Airport on a domestic scheduled flight to George Airport (FAGG) with three crew members and 32 passengers on board. The weather at FAGG was overcast with light rain, and the aircraft was cleared for an instrument landing system approach for runway 11. It touched down between the third and fourth landing marker.

According to the air traffic controller, the landing itself appeared normal, but the aircraft did not vacate the runway to the left as it should have. Instead, it veered to the right, overran the runway and rolled on past the ILS localiser. Realising that something was wrong, he activated the crash alarm. The cockpit crew did not broadcast any messages to indicate that they were experiencing a problem.

The aircraft collided with eleven approach lights before bursting through the aerodrome perimeter fence and coming to rest in a nose-down attitude on the R404 public road. Several motorists stopped and helped the passengers, who evacuated the aircraft through the service door (right front) and left mid-fuselage emergency exit. The aerodrome fire and rescue personnel arrived within minutes and assisted with the evacuation of the cockpit crew, who were trapped in the cockpit. Ten occupants were admitted to a local hospital for a check-up and released after a few hours. No serious injuries were reported.

Probable Cause

The crew were unable to decelerate the aircraft to a safe stop due to ineffective braking of the aircraft on a wet runway surface, resulting in an overrun.

The aircraft crossed the runway threshold at 50 ft AGL at 143 KIAS, which was 15 kt above the calculated VREF speed.
Although the aircraft initially touched down within the touchdown zone the transition back into air mode of 1.5 seconds followed by a 4 second delay in applying the brakes after the aircraft remained in permanent ground mode should be considered as a significant contributory factor to this accident as it was imperative to decelerate the aircraft as soon as possible.
Two of the four main tyres displayed limited to no tyre tread. This was considered to have degraded the displacement of water from the tyre footprint, which had a significant effect on the braking effectiveness of the aircraft during the landing rollout on the wet runway surface.
Several non-compliance procedures were not followed.

These incidents highlight the importance of continuous improvements in aviation safety, pilot training, and aircraft maintenance to prevent future tragedies.