South African Airways Flight 295
Wreckage of Flight 295 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | November 28, 1987 |
| Summary | In-flight fire in cargo hold leading to loss of control and in-flight breakup |
| Site | Indian Ocean, 154 miles (248 km) northeast of Plaisance Airport, Mauritius. 19°10′30″S 59°38′0″E / 19.17500°S 59.63333°E |
| Aircraft | |
| ZS-SAS, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen here on October 19, 1983 | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-244BM Combi |
| Aircraft name | Helderberg |
| Operator | South African Airways |
| IATA flight No. | SA295 |
| ICAO flight No. | SAA295 |
| Call sign | SPRINGBOK 295 |
| Registration | ZS-SAS |
| Flight origin | Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan |
| Stopover | Plaisance Airport, Plaine Magnien, Mauritius |
| Destination | Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Occupants | 159 |
| Passengers | 140 |
| Crew | 19 |
| Fatalities | 159 |
| Survivors | 0 |
South African Airways Flight 295 (SA295/SAA295) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan, to Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, with a stopover in Plaisance Airport, Plaine Magnien, Mauritius. 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. An extensive salvage operation was mounted to try to recover the aircraft's flight recorders, one of which was recovered from a depth of 16,100 feet (4,900 m). The plane crash is also known as the Helderberg disaster.
The official inquiry, headed by Judge Cecil Margo, was unable to determine the cause of the fire. This lack of a conclusion led to theories, debates and speculation about the nature of Flight 295's cargo, as well as a subsequent post-apartheid investigation and calls from relatives of those on the flight to re-open the investigation in the years following the accident. Since the accident, SAA stopped using the Combi version of the Boeing 747 out of safety concerns about the security of the cargo compartment.