South African Airways Flight 295

Summary
Date	November 28, 1987
Type	In-Flight Fire
Site	Indian Ocean (off Mauritius) 19°10′30″S 59°37′60″E / -19.175, 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1)Coordinates: 19°10′30″S 59°37′60″E / -19.175, 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1)
Passengers	140
Crew	19
Injuries	0
Fatalities	159
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-244B Combi
Aircraft name	Helderberg
Operator	South African Airways
Tail number	ZS-SAS
Flight origin	Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan
First stopover	Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius
Destination	Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa (final)

South African Airways Flight 295 was a commercial flight that suffered a catastrophic fire and crashed on November 28, 1987. For the town in Argentina, see 28 de Noviembre. Events Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout South African Airways (SAA is South Africa 's flag carrier and largest domestic and international Airline Company, with hubs in Cape Town An aircraft registration is a unique Alphanumeric string that identifies an Aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (; Tongyong Pinyin: Táiwan Táoyuán Gúojì Jichǎng Hanyu pinyin: Táiwān Táoyuán Gúojì Jīchǎng formerly Taipei ( Taiwanese Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak-chhī Jhuyin Fuhao: ㄊㄞˊ ㄅㄟˇ ㄕˋ Hakka: Thòi-pet-sṳ has been the capital of REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, also known as Plaisance International Airport, is an Airport located in Plaine Magnien Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République OR Tambo International Airport is a large Airport near the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa South African Airways (SAA is South Africa 's flag carrier and largest domestic and international Airline Company, with hubs in Cape Town For the town in Argentina, see 28 de Noviembre. Events Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar)

Flight 295, a Boeing 747-244B Combi, registered ZS-SAS, called the Helderberg and flying the colors of South African Airways, took off from Chiang Kai Shek International Airport (now known as Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport), on a flight to Johannesburg via Mauritius. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout South African Airways (SAA is South Africa 's flag carrier and largest domestic and international Airline Company, with hubs in Cape Town Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (; Tongyong Pinyin: Táiwan Táoyuán Gúojì Jichǎng Hanyu pinyin: Táiwān Táoyuán Gúojì Jīchǎng formerly Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République All 140 passengers and 19 crew on the manifest were killed. The flight also carried six pallets of cargo. ^[1]

The 747 Combi was a variant of the Boeing 747 that permitted the mixing of passengers and freight on the same deck according to load factors on any given route.

Accident scene

Crash Site

Approximate location of the Helderberg crash site

The Helderberg was initially unable to inform Mauritian air traffic control of its position, and when it did, it reported an incorrect location that caused the subsequent search to be concentrated too close to Mauritius. Air traffic control ( ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct Aircraft on the ground and in the air By the time the first surface debris was located 12 hours after impact, it had drifted considerably from the impact location. Lastly, the pingers in the flight data recorders were not designed for deep ocean use, and could therefore also not be used to locate the wreckage. The flight data recorder ( FDR) or Black Box is a Flight recorder used to record specific Aircraft performance parameters

The South African Navy sent the SAS Tafelberg and the SAS Jim Fouche to assist in the recovery of debris and remains. The South African Navy (SAN is the Navy of South Africa. History Formation The South African Navy can trace its official origins Early History SAS Tafelberg started life in 1958 as the Danish tanker Annam in the service of the East Asiatic Company in ^[2] The ocean tugs John Ross and Wolraad Woltemade also attended the scene, along with the Department of Environment Affairs vessel RS Africana. TUGboat (ISSN 0896-3207 is a journal published three times per year by the TeX Users Group.

The South Africans searched unsuccessfully with sonar for the wreckage for two months. Sonar (which started as an Acronym for sound navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses Sound propagation (usually underwater to navigate A specialist deep ocean recovery team from the USA was therefore contracted to find the site and recover the flight data recorders. The flight data recorder ( FDR) or Black Box is a Flight recorder used to record specific Aircraft performance parameters The search area is described as being comparable in size to that of the Titanic, with the water at 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) being considerably deeper. Construction The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland However the wreckage was found within two days of the sonar search of the area commencing. ^[3]

Three debris fields were found: 19°10′30″S 59°37′60″E / -19.175, 59.63333 (SA Helderberg Debris Site1), 19°9′53″S 59°38′32″E / -19.16472, 59.64222 (SA Helderberg Debris Site2) and 19°9′15″S 59°37′25″E / -19.15417, 59.62361 (SA Helderberg Debris Site3). These locations are 1. 5, 2. 3 and 2. 5km apart, which suggested that the fuselage broke up before impact. The cockpit voice recorder was eventually located. A Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR is a Flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flightdeck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents However, the data recorder was never found as the debris area covered several square kilometers.

The Margo commission

A commission of inquiry was chaired by Judge Cecil Margo. Judge Cecil Stanley Margo (died 19 November, 2000) was a member of the South African judiciary The official report determined that while the Helderberg was over the Indian Ocean, a fire had occurred in the main deck cargo hold, originating in the front right-hand cargo pallet. This led to the loss of the airliner. The reason for the loss was not specified, but two possibilities were detailed in the official report: Firstly, that the crew became incapacitated due to smoke penetration into the cockpit. Secondly, that the fire weakened the structure and the tail separated leading to impact with the ocean.

The manufacturer is quoted in the report as having "contested" any scenario that involved a break-up of the aircraft and thus the commission did no more than mention the two possible scenarios in its final report as incidental to the primary cause of the accident.

The commission determined that the primary cause of the loss was because fire detection and suppression facilities in class B cargo bays (the type used aboard the 747-200 Combi) were inadequate. The accident alerted aviation authorities world-wide to the fact that the regulations regarding class B bays had lagged far behind the growth in capacity of such cargo bays. The exact source of ignition was never determined but sufficient evidence was found to confirm that the fire had burned for some time and that it might have caused structural damage.

The cenotaph of the South African Airways 295 accident, located near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. A cenotaph is a tomb or a Monument erected in honour of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (; Tongyong Pinyin: Táiwan Táoyuán Gúojì Jichǎng Hanyu pinyin: Táiwān Táoyuán Gúojì Jīchǎng formerly 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

Numerous conspiracy theories abound about the nature of the cargo that caused the fire as well as the investigation that followed. South African Airways (SAA is South Africa 's flag carrier and largest domestic and international Airline Company, with hubs in Cape Town Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment ^[4] For example,

• The SADF was smuggling red mercury on the flight for its atomic bomb project. The South African Defence Force (SADF were the South African Armed forces from 1957 until 1994 The Red Mercury is the rarest of Austrian Newspaper stamps ( Postage stamps issued for the mailing of newspapers During the 1970s and 1980s South Africa pursued research into nuclear, biological, and Chemical weapons Six nuclear weapons were assembled.
• Reports from the Wouter Basson investigation suggested that a weigh receipt showing that 300 grams of a highly volatile, carbon-based chemical substance had been placed onboard the ill-fated Helderberg — perhaps as a part of Project Coast. Wouter Basson (b July 6 1950 is a South African cardiologist and former head of the country's secret chemical and Biological warfare project Project Coast was a top-secret chemical and biological weapons (CBW program instituted by the South African government during the apartheid era It was alleged by WorldNetDaily of July 5, 2000 that the activated carbon substance may have caused the plane to catch fire and then crash. WorldNetDaily, also known as WND, is a socially conservative news and opinion website founded in 1997. ^[5]
• There were two fires on the plane, with information on the first one that occurred immediately after take-off allegedly being suppressed.
• The tape at SAA headquarters that kept a 24hr record of flight information was deliberately removed and destroyed
• Part of the cockpit voice recording that was not submitted into evidence contained information pertinent to the disaster

The television show Carte Blanche dedicated an investigation into a number of these allegations. Carte Blanche is the flagship Magazine and actuality programme on M-Net, a pay-TV channel broadcasting in Southern Africa. ^[6]

Department of Transport review

The result was that the South African Department of Transport conducted a review of all the evidence and new developments. In 2002 it announced that no new evidence had emerged that would justify a new inquiry into the crash.

Therefore, the finding of the commission chaired by Judge Margo, that an uncontrolled fire - which was not detected in time due to the inadequacy of the fire detection and fighting standards in operation at the time - which either incapacitated the crew or led to structural failure, remains the official standpoint on the crash.

Passengers

^[7]

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Australia	2	0	2
Denmark	1	0	1
West Germany	1	0	1
Hong Kong	2	0	2
Japan	47	0	47
South Korea	1	0	1
Mauritius	2	0	2
Netherlands	1	0	1
South Africa	52	19	71
Republic of China	30	0	30
United Kingdom	1	0	1
Total	140	19	159

Taiwanese authorities stated that 58 passengers began flying in Taipei, including 30 R. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe West Germany ( Inf German: Westdeutschland or West-Deutschland) was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany ( Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː Mauritius (pronounced məˈrɪʃəs L’île Maurice /il mɔ'ʁis/ Mauritian Creole: Maurice) officially the Republic of Mauritius, République The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located O. C. citizens, 19 South Africans, 3 Japanese, two Mauritians, one Dane, one Dutch, one British, and one West German. The other passengers connected in Taipei. ^[8]

At least two passengers died of smoke inhalation. ^[9]

Notable passengers

• Kazuharu Sonoda (a. also known as and, was a Japanese professional wrestler Sonoda died on the crash of South African Airways Flight 295 with his wife, as they were on their k. a. Haru Sonoda and Magic Dragon), a Japanese professional wrestler, was killed on this flight, along with his bride. Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two people in which each wrestler strives to get an advantage over or control of the opponent They were on their honeymoon.

See also

• Air safety
• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners

References

External links

• Selective Summary of evidence given at the inquiry on the disaster involving the Helderberg
• Report from the Aviation Safety Network
• South African Department of Transportation Special Operations Report on the Helderberg Disaster, 2001-2002
• FlyAfrica Forum devoted to finding out the truth about the Helderberg catastrophe
• CVR transcript South African Flight 295 - 28 NOV 1987
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission Special Hearing: Helderberg Flight
• With Malice and Forethought - Website of a fictional book about the disaster. Fiction is the telling of stories which are not real More specifically fiction is an imaginative form of Narrative, one of the four basic Rhetorical modes. Includes actual salvage photographs, CVR transcripts and other material from the investigation. A Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR is a Flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flightdeck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents
• Pre-Crash photos of ZS-SAS from Airliners.net courtesy of J. Tegen
• `We are going to die,' said crew member