South African Airways Flight 295
On 28 November 1987, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 747-200 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] Other theories given for the ultimate demise of the aircraft were that the flight crew eventually became incapacitated by the smoke and fire or extensive damage to the 747's control systems rendered the plane uncontrollable before it hit the ocean.[7] When Flight 295 last informed Plaisance 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.After recovery of the wreckage from 4,000 m (13,000 ft) 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.[citation needed] Rennie Van Zyl, South Africa's head crash investigator, examined three wristwatches from baggage recovered from the surface; two of the watches were still running according to Taiwan time.South Africa, then under the control of the apartheid government, was the target of terrorism both domestically and internationally, and offices for SAA, the country's flag carrier, had previously been attacked.[21] The search area is described as being comparable in size to that of the wreck of the Titanic, with the water at 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) being considerably deeper than any previously successful salvage operation.[18] Van Zyl took the voice recorder to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington, DC, both to show his goodwill and to ensure neutral observers.The fire also damaged and destroyed the aircraft's electrical systems resulting in the loss of many of the instruments on the flight deck and rendering the crew unable to determine their position.[19] 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;[18] and secondly, that the fire weakened the structure so that the tail separated, leading to impact with the ocean.[15] 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.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.[32] After the accident, SAA discontinued use of the Combi and the FAA introduced new regulations in 1993 specifying that manual firefighting must not be the primary means of fire suppression in the cargo compartment of the main deck.[35] In January 1992, the journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) reported that the inquiry into the in-flight fire that destroyed Flight 295 might be reopened because SAA had allegedly confirmed that its passenger jets had carried cargo for Armscor, a South African arms manufacturer.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.[43] Klatzow's theory postulates that the government placed a rocket system in the cargo hold, and that vibration caused the ignition of unstable ammonium perchlorate, which is a chemical compound used as a missile propellant.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 (approx.[46] On 20 July 2011, retired SAA captain Clair Fichardt announced that he had made a statement in connection with the missing Johannesburg air traffic control tapes, after he was persuaded to do so by Klatzow.Earlier, during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, Klatzow had cross-examined Van der Veer, Mitchell, and Vernon Nadel, the operations officer who was on duty.[50][38] On the 25th anniversary of the crash, Peter Otzen Jnr, the son of one of the victims, announced that he was approaching the Constitutional Court of South Africa in an attempt to have the commission of inquiry into the disaster reopened.Jacobs claimed that due to Taiwan's status under martial law at the time, only one telephone at the airport (located in the office of China Airlines) could be used to make international calls and that none of Flight 295's crew had access to it.They were offered and sent on the flight by All Japan Pro-Wrestling president Giant Baba to appear on a wrestling show in South Africa, promoted by fellow wrestler Tiger Jeet Singh.
In-flight fireloss of controlin-flight breakupIndian OceanPlaisance AirportHelderbergSouth African AirwaysRegistrationChiang Kai-shek International AirportTaipeiPlaine MagnienJan Smuts International AirportJohannesburgpassenger flightTaiwanSouth AfricaMauritiusBoeing 747-200flight recordersCecil Margoconspiracy theorieswaybillscustomscaptainSouth African Air Forcefirst officerrelief first officerflight engineerChiang Kai Shek International AirportHong Kongair traffic controlwaypointfire extinguisherPort LouisSpringbokAfrikaansPlaisanceEcho Tango AlfaFlic-en-FlacUnited States NavyDiego Garciasearch and rescueFrench NavyOil slicksTaiwan timeterrorismapartheidflag carriersmoke inhalationunderwater locator beaconsSteadfast Oceaneeringwreck of the Titaniccockpit voice recorderremotely operated vehicleflight data recorderNational Transportation Safety BoardWashington, DCflight manifestpolystyreneflash firespontaneously combustingBoeingHurrylall Goburdhuncarbon-fibretobaccoFederal Aviation AdministrationcenotaphTaiwan Taoyuan International AirportHanyu PinyinRoyal Aeronautical SocietyArmscorSouth African Defence Forcered mercuryatomic bombProject Coastactivated carbonCarte Blanchesparkleroxidising agentarms embargoammonium perchlorateSouth China SeaTruth and Reconciliation Commissioncross-examinedSouth African governmentin cameraSouth African Civil Aviation AuthorityDullah OmarSouth African Police ServiceConstitutional Court of South Africaaffidavitsmartial lawChina Airlinesinvestigative journalistshort circuitleakage currentflashoverSwissair Flight 111Kazuharu SonodaAll Japan Pro-WrestlingGiant BabaTiger Jeet SinghMaydayList of unrecovered and unusable flight recordersUPS Airlines Flight 6Asiana Airlines Flight 991Aviation Safety NetworkMayday (Canadian TV series)Associated PressTransportation Safety Board of CanadaHouston ChronicleThe New York TimesWayback MachineMail and GuardianMargo, CecilSouth African Airways Museum SocietyDestinationsAviation accidents and incidentsVarig Flight 797SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834Aeroflot Flight U-505Northwest Airlink Flight 2268Garuda Indonesia Flight 035American Eagle Flight 5452LOT Flight 5055Air New Zealand Flight 24