Was the SAA Helderberg 747 Shot Down?

On a recent late night radio talk show a man called in claiming he was a senior manager for South African Airways in the period that the 747 Helderberg crashed not too far off the coast of Mauritius.

As South Africa had international sanctions against it, the military was smuggling rocket fuel and various weapons components aboard civilian flights.

On this specific flight there was a fire on board but the crew were able to contain it in the cargo hold.
The flight captain declared an emergency and requested to land in various countries but was denied so as he went along.

"Apparently" the captains final chance to land was in Mauritius but again was denied permission to do so.
The captain ignored this final instruction and made preperations for Mauritius.
This is where things get interesting. Two Mirage III jet fighters were scrambled to intercept the civilian 747 from the South African Airforce.
They did an in-air refuel and eventually caught up with the airliner.

The 747 was eventually shot down after the captain refused to follow instructions from the jet fighters.

What was so dangerous aboard that flight that no less than 5 countries refused permission for it to land?
What was so secretive aboard that flight that the South African government would rather shoot it down than let the world discover it's contents?

Please I need information on this one.

Here's a couple of links I've been able to find, Jo.

www.mnet.co.za...

www.transport.gov.za...

www.news24.com...

Quite a lot of reading there.
The last one refers to a supposed transcript which talks about the possibility of a bomb on board.
All 3 links make reference to small arms, rockets etc.
hope this is of some use to you although I can't find much pertaining to it being shot down. If I do, I'll let you know

regards
FLC



[Edited on 14/12/03 by funlovincriminal]

Interesting interesting story. Thanks for the links, too. I dunno, but if it were shot down like that, and with all those civilians casualties..shouldn't of that became an international affair?

-wD

Thank you for the links.
They were very helpful.
Alot is said in the links that completes some of the puzzle but there is still more work to be done.

Originally posted by Jo
Thank you for the links.
They were very helpful.
Alot is said in the links that completes some of the puzzle but there is still more work to be done.

you're welcome.
I think there's a lot still to be discovered/uncovered about this one. It's got me interested now as well. Time to start digging.

Maybe we can get some others to post their views/findings.

cya later
regards
FLC

28 November 1987 - SAA Helderberg Disaster

On this date at approximately seven miutes past midnight South African Airways Boeing 747-244B Combi crashed into the Indian ocean 134 nautical miles north-east of the Plaisance Airport, Mauritius. None of the 140 passengers and 19 crew aboard survived.

Judge Margo was appointed to head a Board of Inquiry into the crash. The finding of the board was that the accident allowed an uncontrolled fire in the forward right pallet on the main deck cargo compartment. The aircraft crashed into the sea at high speed following a loss of control following the fire.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAA 'dragging feet' in Helderberg probe
Victims' families call for boycott

JOHANNESBURG -- Relatives of some of the 159 people who were killed when the South African Airways Helderberg crashed off the coast of Mauritius in 1987 on Saturday called on passengers to boycott the airline.

It followed a meeting of family representatives earlier in the week when they formed the Helderberg Truth Committee.

Chairman David Klatzow said the committee had the support of all but two of the South African victims' families.

"The committee and the family members call upon all decent people to make use wherever possible of airlines other than SAA to express their displeasure at SAA failing to provide evidence crucial to the Margo Inquiry as well as expressing displeasure at the continued propensity of SAA to transport military explosives aboard civilian airlines after the loss of the Helderberg," the committee said in a statement.

Executive vice-president of marketing and communication for SAA, Victor Nosi, denied the carrier transported explosives.

"As SAA we sympathise with the families for their loss and none of the current management had any involvement in the airline at the time."

Klatzow added the committee would demand all documents pertaining to the crash and would subpoena Transport Minister Dullah Omar either today or tomorrow.

"The families decided unanimously in terms of their constitutional rights to demand from the minister (of transport) all documentation either in the hands of the minister or the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to be made forthwith to the committee."

Omar is expected to receive a report on the crash from the CAA this month.

"The Truth Commission found 18 months ago that there was grounds for the investigation to be reopened because of the transportation of arms and jet fuel by Armscor on SAA flights, but there has been a lot of dragging of feet," Klatzow said.

"Omar said he would leave no stone unturned in finding out the truth. Since then the delegation to the FBI brought back a scrambled version of the (flight recorder) tape on a CD that was allegedly enhanced. However the CD enhanced by Jack Mitchell from the UK contained damaging information," Klatzow said.

The group is also trying to enlist the support of the Swiss, German and Taiwanese governments to have the investigation reopened.

Nationals from the three countries were among those killed in the crash.

The committee added: "The families furthermore call upon those pilots working for SAA and other airlines who have privately approached several members of families claiming to have information, but who are unwilling to make any formal statement, to now come forward and make proper statements and affix there signatures thereto."

As far as I know, the Helderberg was carrying both a modified APC and fissile material. The APC was to be used by two SA companies for SAMS/SSMS development for northern SW Africa in the campaign against the Cubans. The Migs were giving us problesm with our Mirages and other assets. The fissile material was highly enriched and was to be used in a very nasty offensive weapon that I had designed and another invisible Armscor related company was building (I never accepted money for the design, I don't do offensive for payment, only defensive weapons). Both materials came from an east Asian source, shipped through China and were inspected, packaged and loaded in Taiwan. Uys, his co-pilot and the Armscor handler new what was on the plane. Uys would have never taken off if he wasn't threatened from the top of the food chain. I actually wrote a book about all the nasty crap that went on during my stay between 1986 and 1990 in South Africa.

i happened to be on the helderberg, from frankfurt to JHB, felt very uncomfortable, for no reason at all... the flight went on to hongkong

i was very surprised, to hear later from saa staff, that the waiting cockpit
at mauritius-airport - following the radio contact with the helderberg, was taken under oath - will we ever get the truth?