Plaisance Airport - Mauritius
and the Helderberg Crash

November 27, 1987: SAA Flight 295 was heading towards Plaisance Airport-Mauritius (now Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport) for a stopover call on its way home to Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg (now OR Tambo International Airport.)

The plane, a Boeing 747-244B Combi named Helderberg, took off from Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport, Taiwan on the same day with 140 passengers and 19 crew members on-board.

The flight to Plaisance Airport-Mauritius started without any apparent abnormal occurrence and no-one could ever imagine then that a tragic event was going to happen in the early hours of the following day.

The flight ended in a catastrophic crash in the Indian Ocean, just off Belle Mare Beach on the eastern coast of Mauritius, killing everyone who boarded the Helderberg.

While South African Airways Flight 295 was approaching Mauritius, a communication from the aircraft’s cockpit informed Plaisance Airport’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) about an in-flight fire in the cargo area and requested an emergency landing.

Below is a transcript of the communication between Helderberg’s cockpit and Plaisance Airport’s ATC.

23:48:51	295	Eh, Mauritius, Springbok Two Nine Five.
23:49:00	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five, eh, Mauritius, eh, good morning, eh, go ahead.
23:49:07	295	Eh, good morning, we have, eh, a smoke, eh, eh, problem and we're doing emergency descent to level one five, eh, one four zero.
23:49:18	ATC	Confirm you wish to descend to flight level one four zero.
23:49 20	295	Ja, we have already commenced, eh, due to a smoke problem in the aeroplane.
23:49:25	ATC	Eh, Roger, you are clear to descend immediately to flight level one four zero.
23:49:30	295	Roger, we will appreciate if you can alert, eh, fire, ehp, ehp eh, eh…
23:49:40	ATC	Do you wish to eh, do you request a full emergency?
23:49:48	295	Okay Joe, kan jy...vir ons (Okay Joe can you...(for us)
23:49:51	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five, Plaisance.
23:49:54	295	Sorry, go ahead.
23:49:56	ATC	Do you, eh, request a full emergency please a full emergency?
23:50:00	295	Affirmative, that's Charlie Charlie.
23:50:02	ATC	Roger, I declare a full emergency, Roger.
23:50:04	295	Thank you.
23:50:40	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five, Plaisance.
23:50:44	295	Eh, go ahead.
23:50:46	ATC	Request your actual position please and your DME distance?
23:50:51	295	Eh, we haven't got the DME yet.
23:50:55	ATC	Eh, Roger and your actual position please.
23:51:00	295	Eh, say again.
23:51:02	ATC	Your actual position?
23:51:08	295	Now we've lost a lot of electrics, we haven't got anything on the aircraft now.
23:51:12	ATC	Eh, Roger, I declare a full emergency immediately.
23:51:15	295	Affirmative.
23:51:18	ATC	Roger.
23:52:19	295	Eh, Springbok Two Nine Five, do you have an Echo Tango Alfa (ETA – Expected Time of Arrival) Plaisance please?
23:52:30	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five, Plaisance.
23:52:32	295	Ja, Plaisance?
23:52:33	ATC	Do you have an Echo Tango Alfa Plaisance please?
23:52:36	295	Ja, eh, zero zero, eh eh eh three zero.
23:52:40	ATC	Roger, zero zero three zero, thank you.
23:52:50	295	Hey Joe, shut down the oxygen left.
23:52:52	ATC	Sorry, say again please?
00:01:34	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:01:36	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:01:45	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:01:57	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:02:10	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:02:14	295	Unintelligible transmission
00:02:25	295	Carrier wave only
00:02:38	295	Eh, Plaisance, Springbok Two Nine Five, do you copy?
00:02:41	ATC	Eh, negative, Two Nine Five, say again please, say again.
00:02:43	295	We're now sixty five miles.
00:02:45	ATC	Confirm sixty five miles.
00:02:47	295	Ja, affirmative Charlie Charlie. Clearance and weather info.
00:02:50	ATC	Eh, Roger, Springbok eh, Two Nine Five, eh, re you're recleared flight level five zero. Recleared flight level five zero.
00:02:58	295	Roger, five zero.
00:03:00	ATC	And, Springbok Two Nine Five copy actual weather Plaisance Copy actual weather Plaisance. The wind one one zero degrees zero five knots. The visibility above one zero kilometres. And we have a precipitation in sight to the north. Clouds, five octas one six zero zero, one octa five thousand feet. Temperature is twenty two, two two. And the QNH one zero one eight hectopascals, one zero one eight over.
00:03:28	295	Roger, one zero one eight.
00:03:31	ATC	Affirmative, eh and both runways available if you wish.
00:03:43	ATC	And two nine five, I request pilot's intention.
00:03:46	295	Eh, we'd like to track in eh, on eh one three.
00:03:51	ATC	Confirm runway one four.
00:03:54	295	Charlie Charlie
00:03:56	ATC	Affirmative and you're cleared, eh direct to Foxtrot Foxtrot. You report approaching five zero.
00:04:02	295	Kay
00:08:00	ATC	Two Nine Five, Plaisance.
00:08:11	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five, Plaisance.
00:08:35	ATC	Springbok Two Nine Five Plaisance (No answer)

Following the crash it was widely suspected that the South African Government, an apartheid regime under an arms embargo at that time, was using South African Airways' aircrafts to smuggle arms and that the ignition of a missile rocket was the cause of the fire on board SAA Flight 295.

The press and public opinion, on the other hand, surmised that terrorist acts brought down the Helderberg.

The official report of the commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Cecil Margo determined that the loss of the airliner was due to a fire that occurred in the main deck cargo hold.

Helderberg:The reconstructed main deck cargo compartment

(Photo:www.securiteaerienne.com)

The reason for the loss of Flight 295 was not specified. The report detailed two possibilities:-

• The crew became incapacitated due to smoke penetrating into the cockpit.
• The fire weakened the aircraft's structure and the tail separated leading to crash.

The cause of the fire could not be determined.

Passengers On Board South African Airways Flight 295

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Australia	2	0	2
Denmark	1	0	1
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

Source: Wikipedia

Underwater photos of wreckage: Helderberg – ZS SAS

Monument at Belle Mare Beach: In fond memories of ZS-SAS' victims

South African Airways erected a monument at
Belle Mare Beach in memory of the 159 passengers
and crew who tragically lost their lives.

Docudrama of Helderberg’s crash – Cargo Conspiracy

Cineflix produced an episode in its Mayday series (also known as Air Crash Investigations in the United Kingdom and Australia and Air Emergency in the United States) to document the crash.

The documentary, aired in 2008, is titled “Cargo Conspiracy” (also titled "Fanning the Flames" and "Mystery Fire" in some countries)

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