History of The Flight
South African Airways Flight 295 was a Boeing 747-244B Combi, named The Helderberg (registration ZS-SAS; serial number 22171) 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 (100,000 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 characterized as suspicious.
Thirty-four minutes after departure, the flight contacted Hong Kong air traffic control to obtain clearance from waypoint ELATO 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 at 16:34:47. The aircraft made a routine report to the South African Airways base at Jan Smuts (ZUR) at 15:55:18.
At some point during the flight, a fire developed in the cargo section on the main deck; the fire was probably not extinguished before impact. The 'smoke evacuation' checklist calls for the aircraft to be depressurised, and for two of the cabin doors to be opened. No evidence exists that the checklist was followed, or the doors opened. A crew member might have gone into the cargo hold to try to fight the fire. A charged fire extinguisher was later recovered from the wreckage on which investigators found molten metal.
The following communication was recorded with Mauritius air traffic control:
| Transcript of communication with Mauritius air traffic control | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Speaker | Dialog | Comment from official enquiry |
| 23:48:51 | 295 | Eh, Mauritius, Mauritius, Springbok Two Niner 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, an, 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 the 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, 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 | ATC | Eh, Springbok Two Nine Five, do you have an Echo Tango Alfa 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. | Inadvertent transmission from the aircraft |
| 23:52:52 | ATC | Sorry, say again please? | |
| 00:01:34 | 295 | Eh, Plaisance, Springbok 295, we've opened the door(s) to see if we (can?)...we should be OK | |
| 00:01:36 | 295 | Look there (?) | Exclamation by someone else, and is said over the last part of the previous sentence |
| 00:01:45 | 295 | Donner se deur t... | Close the bloody door |
| 00:01:57 | 295 | Joe, switch up quickly, then close the hole on your side. | |
| 00:02:10 | 295 | Pressure(?) twelve thousand | |
| 00:02:14 | 295 | ...Genoeg is...Anders kan ons vlug verongeluk | Otherwise...our flight could come to grief |
| 00:02:25 | 295 | Carrier wave only | |
| 00:02:38 | 295 | Eh Plaisance, Springbok Two Nine Five, do (did) 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. | Incorrectly understood by air traffic control to mean that the aircraft was 65 miles from the airport; in fact it was 65 miles from waypoint Xagal, and 145 miles from the airport. |
| 00:02:47 | 295 | Ja, affirmative Charlie Charlie. | |
| 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 oktas one six zero zero, one okta 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 | Clearance granted to the Flic-en-Flac non-directional navigation beacon. |
| 00:04:02 | 295 | Kay. | Last transmission from the aircraft |
| 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) | |
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