South African Airways Flight 295

South African Airways Flight 295

ZS-SAS, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen at Faro Airport in 1986, a year before the crash.
Accident summary
Date	28 November 1987
Summary	In-flight fire in cargo hold (cause undetermined and disputed)
Site	Indian Ocean, 134 nautical miles (248 km) north-east 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)
Passengers	140
Crew	19
Fatalities	159 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-244M
Aircraft name	Helderberg
Operator	South African Airways
Registration	ZS-SAS
Flight origin	Chiang Kai Shek Int'l Airport Taipei, Taiwan
Stopover	Sir S. Ramgoolam Int'l Airport Mauritius
Destination	Jan Smuts International Airport Johannesburg, South Africa

External images

Photos at withmaliceandforethought.com/

Pre-Crash photos of ZS-SAS from Airliners.net

South African Airways Flight 295, a Boeing 747 named Helderberg was a commercial flight from Taiwan to South Africa that suffered a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius on 28 November 1987, killing everyone on board. 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 deepest successful salvage operation ever conducted. The official inquiry, headed by Judge Cecil Margo, was unable to determine the cause of the fire, leading to a number of conspiracy theories being advanced in the following years.

South African Airways Flight 295 was a Boeing 747-244B Combi, named The Helderberg that was delivered to the airline in 1980. The aircraft took off on 27 November 1987 from Taipei Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, on a flight to Johannesburg via Mauritius. Dawie Uys served as the captain of the flight.

The Boeing 747-244B Combi is a variant of the aircraft that permits the mixing of passengers and airfreight on the main deck according to load factors on any given route and Class B cargo compartment regulations. Flight 295 had 140 passengers and six pallets of cargo on the main deck. The master waybills stated that 47,000 kilograms (104,000 lb) of baggage and cargo were loaded on the plane. 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.

The flight crew consisted of 49-year-old Captain Dawie Uys (who had 13,843 flight hours), 36-year-old First Officer David Attwell (who had 7,362 flight hours), 37-year-old Relief First Officer Geoffrey Birchall (who had 8,749 flight hours), 45-year-old Flight Engineer Giuseppe "Joe" Bellagarda (who had 7,804 flight hours), and 34-year-old Relief Flight Engineer Alan Daniel (who had 1,595 flight hours).

Thirty-four minutes after departure, the flight 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. The aircraft made a routine report to the South African Airways base at Jan Smuts (ZUR) at 15:55:18.