The Helderberg - Lest we forget

[Desperate Wannabe]

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Helderberg disaster, flight SA295
let as all take a moment to remember the 159 pax and crew that went down with ZS - SAS on that fateful morning. :sad:
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends left behind.

[Avi8tor]

A date I never remember, but a day will never forget. Very sad indeed.

My thoughts are with those left behind.

[RobinB]

Heather Leppan, a school friend of mine, was one of the air hostesses on that flight. And SAA and "les Authoroties" are doing a "Manuel" - "I know notheeeng" - @&^%#

[With Flash...]

Lost but never forgotten :(

[Yossarian]

RIP guys. We will not forget.

[chebbie]

Actually I'm from Mauritius. I was very young around 3 or 4 yrs old when this happened. To me, I was only told about this accident through the media or people. Some of the debris were carried by wave currents to some coastal localities near my place. This name still and will ever stays as a legend to people in MAuritius.
My thoughts goes to all those cabin crews, pilots and passengers who were on board.

[johan_jnb]

Remember indeed. My dad worked for SAA at the time, i was young but i can remember. It was tough for most of those who knew the crew (cockpit or cabin) on-board.

[Pow-wow]

Looks like something is happening again...

Witness comes forward with Helderberg clues - The Star | IOL.co.za (http://www.iol.co.za/thestar/witness-comes-forward-with-helderberg-clues-1.1102971)

[cavortingcheetah]

November 28th, 1987.
One hundred and fifty nine dead and never found.
As has been said before, in 2001 by a respected and regular contributor to these pages, there are many on the ground who come out of this with no honour. It would be excellent if Clair Fichardt, who appears somewhere, I think, in one of my logbooks, could lay this one to rest.

[Capetonian]

I knew several people on board as there was a group of travel agents returning from an educational to the Far East. A traumatic few days as we found out how many people we knew were on board.

[cavortingcheetah]

Slightly off track but one that never gets remembered is the Bop Air Emb 110, ZS- LGP. on March 1, 1988. It was blown up on approach into FAJS killing all 18 persons on board. The man with the dynamite or explosives, Emil S, had recently been fired from his job and had also taken out a large life insurance policy. Who can say whether he meant to blow everyone up. There were some very brave relatives waiting at FAJS that night. Geoff and Stan were the pilots. There was no cabin attendant.

http://aviation-safety.net/photos/aircraft/19880301-0-P-d-1-500.jpg

[Avi8tor]

Not really on the Helderberg thread, but the route was operated by Comair at the time. Airlink took over a lot of the staff when they took over the route. I would always go into the terminal to do the loadsheet. The branch manager at the time was looking some what down. I asked her what was wrong.

She said it was the anniversary of that crash, she had been the check-in girl that night, she had handed the crew all the paperwork at the aircraft. Later she had received the call from JNB, could she go back to the airport to fax the pax list, as all aboard had died.

We forget how air crashes affect so many people.

[gema]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Helderberg disaster, flight SA295 on 28 November 1987 enroute TPE-MRU-JNB
Let as all take a moment to remember the 159 pax and crew that went down with ZS - SAS off the Mauritius coast on that fateful morning.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends left behind.

Every year less and less people remember this tragedy, and that in itself is tragic

[ZFT]

I for one will not forget. RIP

[Less Hair]

So has this accident ever been openly documented? I seem to remember their CVR tapes had been edited and there were media reports about certain clandestine cargo on board. At least SA flight engs had different views on the official reports back then.

http://www.iasa.com.au/folders/Safety_Issues/others/helderberg/two.html

[PAXboy]

Fortunately, whilst we do not know the detail, we do know enough to know that there was terrible consipracy by govt, for which regular citizens paid with their lives.

[Whenwe]

Yes that Saturday morning we heard from ZUR that SA295 was missing and that there had been an earlier fire.

Those tapes just had to disappear........