- hace 13 horas
On 28 November 1987, a fire breaks out on South African Airways Flight 295 in the rear main cargo area as it is flying high above the Indian Ocean. The Boeing 747 combined passenger/cargo aircraft (Combi) crashes with no survivors out of the 159 people on board. The exact cause of the fire is undetermined.
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00:06a 747 flying towards South Africa fills with smoke a fire has erupted in the cargo area but
00:14the plane can't land it's too far over the Indian Ocean the first thought I think for many many
00:23South Africans was what was on that plane the passengers are choking on toxic fumes request
00:31a full emergency please there's only one way to clear the smoke the crew must try a rarely used
00:39and risky maneuver open the doors in flight it's a race against time as the plane burns up it must
00:55reach land before it crashes into the sea
01:27on November the 27th 1987 a South African Airways 747 flies from Taiwan back home to South Africa
01:40everything good fine captain ready to take over yes thanks
01:46nine hours into their flight over the Indian Ocean the main crew returns to their seats allowing the
01:53relief crew to rest the crew prepares for a scheduled stop on the island of Mauritius
02:03Valerie Lottering has enjoyed her first overseas vacation joining her husband Cory while he was on
02:09business my father was on a business trip my mom had gone with for holidays my dad had actually gone
02:18to the east to secure cell phone technology which was just sort of happening in South Africa at the time
02:29the plane is a modified 747 known as a combi short for combination a passenger plane and a cargo plane
02:37in
02:37one it's designed to accommodate flexible quantities of passengers and cargo the combi has a large cargo area
02:44down below like a regular 747 the combi also has a large cargo area right behind the last row of
02:51economy class seats the cockpit sits one level above the cabin you could load from 6 to 12 pallets on
03:02the
03:02main deck adjusting the bulkhead for the number of passengers you want to carry and this turned out to be
03:09a very
03:10worthwhile and useful tool flight 295 is carrying 159 people as well as six large pallets of cargo known
03:23as the Helderberg the 747 combi is a vital member of the South African Airways fleet it's particularly useful for
03:31long-range flying for South African Airways during the days of apartheid a plane like the combi helped
03:39them in that respect that because they had to fly around the bulge of Africa over the Atlantic to protest
03:46South Africa's white racist regime the vast majority of black African states refused to allow South African
03:53airlines to fly over their airspace causing them to fly longer routes they were sanctions heavy sanctions
04:00against South Africa on political economic and cultural France so Africa was not welcome anyway
04:08credible in the world on flight 295 less than an hour before its stop in Mauritius the smoke alarm breaks
04:16the calm of the cockpit it's for the cargo area on the main deck directly behind the passengers by the
04:24time
04:24the crew gets to it the fire is raging it's bad so I get another bottle over there yeah hurry
04:39read out the fire
04:42checklist for us please in fire emergencies the crew follows a standard checklist to extinguish the
04:48fire the breaker popped as well huh we'll check the breaker panel as well the fire is burning through
04:55the plane's wiring causing short circuits move as far forward as you can but there's a more
05:06immediate problem passengers are having trouble breathing the duct isolation valve switches open
05:14packed valve switches all open recirculating fan switches off the fire checklist instructs the
05:26pilot to land at the nearest airport but the closest one is on the island of Mauritius still more than
05:32300
05:33kilometers away there's not a lot Captain Ace can do he asks a member of his flight crew to help
05:39fight
05:39the cargo fire bring me another bottle Captain Ace initiates an emergency descent he calls the airport on the
05:58island of the island of Mauritius which is on good terms with South Africa it's just before four in the
06:04morning when Mauritius air traffic control receives the call Mauritius Mauritius springbok 295
06:13Mauritius good morning go ahead good morning we have a smoke uh problem and we're doing emergency
06:19descent to level one five uh one four zero confirm you wish to descend to level one four zero yeah
06:26we've
06:26already commenced uh due to a smoke problem in the airplane do you uh request a full emergency please
06:34affirmative that's Charlie Charlie
06:39Captain Ace sounds calm but he has to find a way of getting rid of the smoke on his plane
06:47whatever's burning in the cargo hold is producing thick noxious smoke which is pouring into the cabin
06:52it could be deadly to the passengers
06:59Captain Ace is losing power to many of his instruments
07:02we've lost a lot of electrics we haven't done anything on the uh on the aircraft now
07:08he's not sure where he is
07:11the airport prepares for an emergency landing
07:15while the crew of the Helderberg follows instructions from another checklist to get rid of the smoke
07:21supplementary vent fan switch off recirculating fan switches
07:30on smoke condition hold on i'll check downstairs
07:35the crew gets more bad news from the cabin the smoke is getting thicker
07:43it's worse we can't breathe down here
07:47with the plane approaching an altitude of 4500 meters the checklist advises the captain to execute
07:54an emergency maneuver that few pilots have ever performed
07:58we need to open the doors repeat open the doors
08:04opening the plane's doors in midair is the only hope for thinning a cloud of smoke that could kill
08:09the passengers before the struggling jet can land
08:16the captain begins his emergency descent to 4500 meters so the doors can be opened
08:23at 4500 meters passengers can breathe the outside air
08:28at that altitude the difference in pressure between the air inside and outside the cabin is enough to force the
08:34cabin air out quickly but not dangerously
08:37now the captain must dramatically reduce his air speed to 370 kilometers an hour 200 knots
08:44any faster and the crew won't be able to open the doors
08:48this is captain always speaking we're opening two of the entry doors to clear smoke from the cabin do not
08:53panic
08:54you'll be much more comfortable once we complete this procedure
08:58you just crack the door and this generates a tremendous amount of airflow through the airplane
09:12blazing spring fog 295 we've opened the doors to see if we can
09:15we should be okay
09:17out there
09:20close the bloody door
09:24joe switch up quickly
09:25then close the hole on your side
09:29smoke is now building in the cockpit but there's no outside door to open
09:35temperature is 2222 and the q and h is 1018 hectopascals 1018 over
09:44the air traffic controller now focuses on giving the captain the information he needs for an emergency landing
09:51roger 1018
09:53affirmative and both runways are available if you wish
09:57and 295 i request a pilot's intention
10:00uh we'd like to track in uh on uh 13
10:05confirm runway 13
10:06charlie charlie
10:08affirmative you're cleared direct to fox route fox route
10:12you report approaching 5-0
10:14okay
10:16captain ace has one hope he must make it to the island of mauritius
10:22265 kilometers away
10:24the helderberg continues on its desperate journey
10:32295 place
10:37but at 408 in the morning a call by the air traffic controller is not returned
10:44springbok 295 place
10:48springbok 295 place
10:50with no response from flight 295 for 36 minutes
10:58air traffic control mauritius formally declares an emergency
11:01an alert goes out to search and rescue crews
11:05several aircraft take off from mauritius and search the dark waters for the missing plane
11:10but find nothing
11:12in the afternoon of the next day a rescue plane spots the first signs of floating aircraft wreckage
11:27the first sign of the helderberg case
11:28renny van sale the head of south africa's aviation safety board is assigned to the helderberg case
11:35a normal investigator will only handle a major accident about once in 20 years in his career
11:42so this was a quite a big wake-up and a challenge to us to start running with this investigation
11:52in that morning
11:54eight bodies are found in the water all suffering from extreme trauma
11:59it was around about two o'clock
12:01that we in fact were advised that the wreckage and an oil slick had been spotted
12:08and it was then quite apparent that the airplane was lost
12:15south africa quickly becomes obsessed with what caused the crash in the early days there's very
12:22little to examine only small bits of the plane that are floating on the surface
12:32contained within that debris
12:34renny van sales team discovers three wristwatches
12:39the watches give them a probable time of impact
12:45these wristwatches were in fact part of the baggage
12:48and when examined we were able to find that the one that stopped and two others were still running
12:55and the two running ones were the exact taiwanese time
12:59but the stopped one that give us the minute indication of what we
13:05could establish as the impact time of the airplane
13:09the impact time is only three minutes after the last communication with the plane
13:14the helderberg's demise was sudden and dramatic
13:18in the press and in public opinion it reinforces the idea that something sinister brought the plane down
13:25in the years leading up to the crash south african airways offices around the world had been the target of
13:30protests
13:32the south african airways airline at that particular time was a government body it was owned by the government
13:39it was the national carrier but it was also very much perceived to be part of the south african government
13:46so another aspect of this plane crash and another theory that was that was put around was that there could
13:53have been a bomb in the cargo
13:54that in fact we were a target south africa or the saa plane was a target of terrorists who had
14:00the worst interest of this country at heart
14:03experts examine the small bits of wreckage they have searching for the telltale signs of an explosion
14:09impact cavities surface pitting or spatter cavities
14:15spatter cavities are caused by the white hot fragments from a high explosive device striking and melting the light alloys
14:21of the aircraft structure
14:23but experts spot no sign of an explosion
14:28and when air traffic control tapes are studied
14:30Fonseil hears that the crew appeared to be coping with the emergency
14:40with just small pieces of the plane to study investigators are stumped
14:45they don't know what caused the fire or what role it played in the destruction of the plane
14:51the obvious thing to do was to go and try and retrieve the cockpit voice recorder
14:57the flight data recorder and as much wreckage as we can from the aircraft to establish what really had happened
15:04the problem is Fonseil doesn't even know where to find the underwater wreckage
15:09it could be far from the floating debris
15:11no one is sure exactly where the plane crashed
15:16he turns to the United States looking for help
15:20an American salvage company is hired to find the wreckage and black boxes
15:25but time is running out
15:27the boxes have built in locating devices called pingers which run on batteries and will eventually run down
15:35a driving factor was that the pinger on the data and voice recorders was transmitting
15:42and it only had a 30 day guaranteed shelf life
15:48if we couldn't get out there in 30 days the chances were that we wouldn't be able to detect it
16:01by the time the proper equipment can be assembled in the Indian Ocean
16:05only seven days remain before the batteries and the pingers will die out
16:11meanwhile blood tests are performed on the human remains pulled from the debris field
16:17all show traces of soot in their trachea
16:20it's determined that at least two of the passengers died from smoke inhalation
16:26investigators face a disturbing realization
16:29even as the crew was struggling to land their plane
16:33some of the passengers were already dead
16:39while searching for the black boxes investigators continue to examine the floating wreckage
16:48amongst the hundreds of recovered items
16:50a partly melted graphite tennis racket offers a telltale clue about the fire
16:57graphite only burns at temperatures greater than 600 degrees Celsius
17:03investigators now know that the fire on the Helderberg was extremely hot
17:07this discovery may explain why a fully charged extinguisher from the front of the plane
17:12is recovered with other floating wreckage
17:16investigators notice a melted piece of cargo netting on the outside of the extinguisher
17:20they determine that the extinguisher is from the passenger cabin
17:24suggesting that as the fire burned a crew member grabbed the extinguisher and brought it to the cargo area
17:34a full fire extinguisher in a plane that was brought down by fire shows that for whatever reason
17:39it wasn't discharged because the crew member couldn't access the area because of the heat
17:44or the fact that there was melted metal on the fire extinguisher is further evidence to the intensity of the
17:50fire
17:52before this accident in the 20 year history of the 747 combi
17:56no one had ever died from fire or smoke
18:00when we heard about a fire in the Helderberg
18:03this was the first time for a white body airplane
18:06it was news and because it was so new
18:10and the thought was that we really couldn't have anything like that
18:17what could have caused such an intense fire on the Helderberg?
18:20was it a wiring problem on the plane or had the cargo itself somehow started the blaze?
18:27initially the investigation of course focused on what was the cargo
18:31the fire obviously had originated in the main day cargo compartment
18:35so the logical thing is to look what did the way bills indicate was carried in the airplane
18:43investigators learned that there were six pallets of cargo on board flight 295
18:49using master weigh bills
18:51Van Sayl's team is able to determine that 47,000 kilograms of baggage and cargo was officially on board
19:01investigators discover that before takeoff
19:04a Taiwanese customs official performed a random inspection of some of the cargo
19:08he found nothing suspicious
19:16more than ever investigators need to find the rest of the plane
19:20and locate the Helderberg's black boxes
19:23but 30 days after the crash
19:25Van Sayl's team gets some very bad news
19:28there's still no signal detected from the black boxes
19:31and they're still not certain exactly where the majority of the wreckage is
19:37so far the search has cost one and a half million US dollars
19:41and the team has been unable to locate vital evidence
19:44the Helderberg crash is quickly becoming a test of Van Sayl's abilities and his resolve
19:51the investigation reaches a standstill
19:53Van Sayl has failed to discover the cause of the fire or even find the plane's wreckage
20:00if he keeps looking it'll cost millions more
20:03and the chances of success are getting increasingly remote
20:08this wasn't just an airplane this was a Boeing 747
20:11the largest airplane of its time
20:13and this was a 747 of South Africa's national airlines
20:18the hundreds of thousands of people who flew the 747 every day at that time
20:22were dependent on a satisfactory answer to is to whether or not this aircraft was safe
20:27and whether or not there were any structural or design deficiencies in the airplane
20:31so the stakes for us were quite large
20:34and the stakes for Mr. Bunzel as the head of the South African investigation were enormous
20:45Well beneath the grey waves of the Indian Ocean
20:48the wreckage of the Helderberg remains hidden
20:54Now one man, Rennie Van Sayl, must decide whether to spend the money needed to recover the plane's wreckage
21:02But almost two months after the Helderberg slammed into the Indian Ocean
21:06no one even knows the precise location of the main wreckage
21:12Van Sayl decides he must try to recover what he can
21:15Without the wreckage we'll never know the truth
21:19So they spent on one investigation
21:21what we spent in six months of conducting our
21:24all of our investigations in the United States
21:26Before investigators can salvage the Helderberg
21:29they must find it
21:32The wreckage lies somewhere very deep underwater
21:3661 days after the crash of the Helderberg
21:39Van Sayl receives some intriguing news from his team
21:43Sophisticated sonar equipment has detected a large object
21:474,400 meters underwater on a flat plateau
21:50It could be the Helderberg
21:53And they presented me with a piece of paper
21:56with a lot of black docks of various sizes on it
21:59and they said that's your wreckage
22:01and my question to them was
22:04how do I know it's the wreckage of the 747
22:07maybe this is a submarine from the Second World War or something
22:11and the response was just
22:13because we tell you it is the wreckage
22:17But no one's ever gone that deep to salvage anything
22:21including the Titanic
22:23Van Sayl has no choice
22:26To find out whether the sonar images are in fact the wreckage
22:29he must launch the most expensive part of the investigation
22:33Operation Resolve
22:36A remote controlled sub called the Gemini will be sent to the ocean floor to videotape what's there
22:42If it is the Helderberg
22:44the Gemini will search for key items including the black boxes
22:48The problem is that the mini sub must be attached to the mothership
22:52by a flexible fiber optic cable that's almost 7 kilometers long
22:57No cable that long has ever been built
23:00We needed a 20,000 foot cable
23:03There was no existing cable
23:05so we had to go to a cable manufacturer and get a cable designed and built
23:11But before the fiber optic cable is assembled
23:14Van Sayl launches a separate investigation into the firefighting capabilities of the Helderberg
23:21He would discover that the very design of the combi may have doomed the flight
23:30Investigators want to know whether the combi was properly designed to protect the passengers on South African Airways Flight 295
23:37from fire
23:38The smoke should not have entered the combi's cabin
23:42The American team leader in the investigation, Barry Strouch, goes to Boeing's headquarters in Seattle
23:48To find out how the combi was tested for certification in fire prevention
23:54Strouch's team learns that to comply with federal regulations
23:57Boeing's fire tests were conducted by setting a bale of tobacco leaves on fire
24:04When a technician enters the cargo area to fight the demonstration fire, no smoke enters the passenger cabin
24:10The smoke remains localized
24:13The fire is quickly extinguished
24:16Well that was in the test conditions that Boeing used to get the airplane approved
24:22But in the reality, as we saw in this accident, it didn't work that way because you didn't have a
24:29nice clean fire with fans blowing the smoke towards the ceiling
24:32You had pallets, you had a fire that would have grown considerably before the smoke was generated
24:37And you had plastic sheeting that would provide fuel to the fire
24:41In addition to all the cardboard and packing materials within the pallets themselves
24:45The combi is designed to prevent smoke from entering the passenger cabin
24:49The air there is kept at a slightly higher pressure than in the cargo area
24:54When the door between the two is opened, the air should flow into the cargo area, keeping the passengers safe
25:08Investigators then conduct their own test
25:10They set a large pallet of tightly packed cargo on fire, mimicking conditions on the Helderberg
25:16The blaze is more intense and the temperature is hotter
25:21Investigators discover that this much hotter flame has a radical impact on the air in the cargo hold
25:27When the cargo door is opened, the smoke now flows into the passenger cabin
25:32Then investigators discover something potentially more lethal
25:37As the passenger cabin filled with smoke, a checklist instructed the crew to turn on the cabin's recirculating fans
25:45The intention of the checklist is to dissipate the smoke in the passenger cabin after the fire has been extinguished
25:52Recirculating fan switches
25:55On
25:57But in this case, turning the fans on may have been deadly
26:03Fans draw air from above the cabin's ceiling and from the cargo compartment before recirculating it back to the passengers
26:11The carbon monoxide levels were extremely high and were fatally high
26:16In fact, the one body, and we have to stress again, he was allocated the seat
26:24Really below the recirculating fan inlet area
26:28That was the highest level, I think we're talking around about 66%
26:36That is not a survivable level at all
26:41By following their checklist, the crew may have fed toxic gas into the passenger cabin
26:49And it might very well have been that most of your passengers were asphyxiated before impact
26:55No checklist for a 747 combi had ever foreseen the Helderberg's simultaneous problems
27:01A cargo fire problem and a cabin smoke problem
27:05The smoke removal checklist is predicated on the assumption that the fire has been extinguished
27:11In that event, descending to 14,000 feet and opening the cabin door would be the appropriate thing to do
27:17It would get the smoke out of the airplane and enable people to breathe regular air
27:23If the fire hasn't been extinguished, that would have the function of actually increasing the air flow to the fire
27:29And increasing the supply of oxygen to the fire
27:32We think that's what happened in this case, that the fire had never been extinguished
27:35And in fact, the crew's attempts to make the situation better may have in fact made the situation worse
27:43Investigators begin to realise that fighting a fire in the combi's cargo area is much more difficult than previously thought
27:54If there was a fire in one of these pallets
27:57It was quite likely that by the time the crew was alerted to the fire, it would be too late
28:03Then the cabin instantly filled up with smoke
28:06But Fonseil still doesn't know what caused such a fierce fire
28:11How had the blaze started?
28:13And how had it brought the plane down?
28:16The answers are still deep under the ocean
28:18It takes months to build the fibre optic cable that's long enough for the Gemini to reach the bottom of
28:24the sea
28:24And to modify the submarine for this mission
28:27We had to take the ROV, existing ROV that we had, which was designed for 6,000 feet
28:34And we had to modify it so it would go to 20,000 feet
28:40Roy Truman's team had to give the sub thicker walls to withstand the enormous pressure it would encounter
28:47And modify its cameras for the extreme depth
28:50On September the 23rd, 1988, the Gemini begins its record-breaking journey
28:56We were hesitant to say that everything would work because we didn't even have time to do sea trials on
29:03this, all of this new equipment
29:05The cable allows technicians at the surface to manipulate the Gemini at 4,400 metres
29:12It also carries video signals from that remarkable depth
29:17It's the first time that video images have been recorded from this deep in the Indian Ocean
29:22Marine biologists are fascinated by the discovery of unique new species
29:30Some of the stuff that we saw on the seabed was pretty mind-blowing
29:37Then, one year to the day after it disappeared, the Helderberg is found
29:42From a depth of 4,400 metres, the submarine sends back images that could only be the wreckage of South
29:50African Airways Flight 295
29:53There would be lots of luggage just strewn all over the seabed
29:59Massive structures, the wings, tail, huge parts of the cabin split open
30:07And you could see all of the ribs and the wiring, the hydraulic piping
30:13I mean, it was incredible just to see everything that went into a machine spread over an area of about
30:235, 6 square miles
30:25It was incredible
30:26Von Seil's expensive gamble is beginning to pay off
30:29Descending to the Helderberg's wreckage is a triumph for him and his team
30:34But just finding the debris isn't nearly enough
30:37A year after the accident, Von Seil is still hoping for the improbable
30:42The recovery of the cockpit voice recorder
30:46One of the major aspects we aimed at in operational resolve was the recovery of the CVR
30:53We really wanted to know whether the cabin crew reported to the captain that there was an explosion
31:01What was happening at the back?
31:05Hundreds of hours of videotape are recorded
31:07It's exhausting work
31:10If you can imagine being on a football field with a flashlight
31:14That only illuminates a square foot of the football field
31:18And you're looking for nearing one of the football players lost during the game in the dead of night
31:26That's similar to what it's like when we're on the seabed
31:30Then at 9 o'clock one morning, something catches the eye of one of the technicians
31:36Go back, go back for a second
31:38I might have passed
31:41At long last, the black box is discovered
31:46There, that's it
31:48That's it right there
31:50Michael, we found it
31:53We found it
31:57That was a very fulfilling moment to know, find what we had aimed for, we have achieved, we're getting it
32:05It takes a full five hours for the Gemini to bring the black box up from the bottom of the
32:10sea
32:16The South African media turns the discovery into front page news
32:22It's now 1989 and the apartheid government is still running the country with an iron fist
32:29Funseil makes an unusual decision
32:31He takes the sealed black box to Washington and opens it there
32:36Because otherwise I would have been accused of having covered up something or left something out or whatever
32:44And we, the FAA and the NTSB guys all listen to this tape at the same time for the first
32:51time
32:53Tension in the room is high
32:55The cockpit voice recorder should be a tape of the last 30 minutes of the flight
33:00As the crew fought the fire
33:03But the tape turns out to be a major frustration
33:06After a year on the bottom of the ocean, it's difficult to understand anything
33:22It was the worst time of my life
33:24Sitting in the playback room
33:27At the NTSB facilities
33:30And you watch the time
33:32And there is absolutely
33:34No indication of problems on the tape
33:37And I'm watching the clock
33:40And about 25 minutes
33:42I was really getting very, very anxious
33:51For 28 minutes the tape reveals nothing unusual
33:55Then everything changes
33:57The next minute of course the alarm bell goes on the CVR
34:01And we had about a minute's worth of relevant recording on the tape before the tape stopped
34:10Normally the black box records the final moments of a flight
34:13But not this time
34:15Instead investigators are able to listen to the start of the accident before the recording mysteriously stops
34:23It's not what Van Sayle was hoping for
34:25But it gives him crucial new insight into the fire
34:28Read out the fire checklist for us please
34:3114 seconds after the fire alarm goes off
34:34The plane's circuit breakers start to pop
34:36The breaker popped as well
34:39We'll check the breaker panel as well
34:41Yeah
34:43Investigators estimate that up to 80 circuits were disabled
34:46The wires to the cockpit voice recorder are destroyed
34:50Only 81 seconds after the fire alarm first goes off
34:55Van Sayle has not received the key evidence that he hoped for
34:59But the fire is revealed as more violent than previously thought
35:04The recording leaves many questions unanswered
35:08But it does help Van Sayle to arrive at a personal opinion as to why the plane may have crashed
35:14A lot of things were happening in the cockpit
35:16And we believe that he probably was faced to up to 80 circuit breakers popping in the cockpit at the
35:23time
35:24May have made controlling of the aircraft extremely difficult
35:31And the possibility then even of the airplane just gradually descending into the sea
35:37Whether it was a controllable flight
35:40So I have my doubts
35:43I put myself in the cockpit on this thing and I said I would have been terrified
35:49Having this, you know, just figuring out what do we do
35:51You know, did they do the checklist correctly?
35:55We'll never know
35:57But investigators still don't know what triggered the Helderberg fire
36:02The mystery can now only be solved by salvaging parts from the crashed plane
36:07We realised that what we had to do was just to continue to recover as much wreckage as we could
36:15from the ocean floor
36:18Van Sayle's focus is on certain key pieces of the combi's cargo area
36:23They're brought to a hangar and reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle
36:29His plan is to reconstruct the section of the cargo area where the fire most likely started
36:35Van Sayle discovers that the cargo area floor is untouched by fire
36:41So we know that the fire never burned lower than one meter of the cargo floor
36:48But the walls and ceiling at the front of the cargo area reveal severe fire damage
36:54Van Sayle makes a dramatic discovery
36:57The seat of the fire was on the front right pallet of the cargo
37:01So we were looking at the very localised fire on one pallet
37:08The front right pallet was mostly filled with computers
37:11Protected by polystyrene packaging
37:16Investigators suspect that a fire within the pallet came in contact with the polystyrene packing material
37:21Producing gases which accumulated near the ceiling
37:25When the gases became hot enough
37:27They ignited into a flash fire that spread throughout the cargo hold
37:32Once smoke penetrated the polyethylene sheets
37:36That fire would have been very, very hot
37:38But even if the packing material had helped spread the blaze
37:41Van Sayle still didn't know why it started
37:43After millions of dollars and more than a year and a half of work
37:47He has to end his investigation
37:49I would have felt a lot better if we had been in a better position
37:53To give more factual information to the board to consider
38:00But that was not to be
38:02And we were not going to fabricate
38:06But interest in the wreck of the Helderberg doesn't die
38:10Dark rumours circulate about a possible cause of the fire
38:15It's against this backdrop of a very repressive apartheid government
38:19At that particular time
38:22The first thought I think for many, many South Africans
38:25Was what was on that plane?
38:27Was there something in that cargo hold that could have caused that terrible fire?
38:32Because planes don't just burst into flames mid-air and crash
38:37Then a South African government chemist makes a startling discovery
38:41Which leads to a controversial new theory
38:45A microscopic iron particle on the nylon netting next to the pallet has a unique profile
38:54The airflow patterns on the iron suggest that it travelled at a very high velocity while in a molten state
39:01The discovery could mean that the fire on the Helderberg was not a flash fire triggered by packing materials
39:08This was a different kind of fire
39:10This was a fire that had its own oxygen
39:15If you can imagine something like a sparkler which has fuel and its own oxygen
39:20It was some kind of material similar to a sparkler that we feel was the cause of the fire
39:29A British fire and explosion analyst examines the exterior skin of the plane above the pallet
39:34And comes up with another piece of evidence to support the new theory
39:39The skin on the outside of the plane reached temperatures as high as 300 degrees centigrade
39:46You must remember that it's very difficult to burn through an airplane skin in flight
39:50Because the tremendous amount of cooling from the airflow on the outside of the skin
39:56Dr. David Clatso is one of numerous experts who question what caused the fire
40:02It would have involved substances which normally would not have been carried aboard an aircraft
40:07Particularly a passenger aircraft
40:09In other words, it could not have been a normal packing material
40:13Wood, cardboard, plastic, fire
40:18You don't carry the things of that nature which carry their own oxygen which can produce an accelerated fire
40:26For a number of reasons, one of which they are generally unstable
40:30The second reason is that normal fire extinguishing methods will not put them out
40:35What could start such a fire?
40:37The only dangerous goods listed on the cargo manifest are computer batteries
40:41Some believe the Helderberg must have been carrying cargo that wasn't listed
40:47At the time, South Africa was under an international arms embargo
40:50The country was also fighting a war with Angola
40:53South Africa didn't have capacity to do everything itself
40:57And there were times when it had to buy from other countries
41:02SAA was seen as a surrogate cargo carrier
41:06That they could somehow through its commercial airline use
41:12Also bring in substances for the South African government
41:14Under cover, under protection, no questions asked
41:19It was not that easy for them to fly a quasi-military airline into different countries
41:26And pick up military contraband
41:27Which, you must remember, we were laboring under an arms embargo at the time
41:32The media fuels the flames of suspicion that the government was using passenger jets
41:37To secretly import weapons
41:40Armscore is the corporation responsible for supplying the South African forces with munitions
41:47At the time, there was a need to produce a better rocket system
41:52A more efficient rocket system for dealing with the air menace in Angola
41:57And the rocketry systems which are used for those purposes
42:02And as their propellant, a major component of the propellant is ammonium perchlorate
42:07And that is what I believe was being carried aboard the Helderberg
42:12But it is not the sort of compound you want on an aircraft
42:15When you are flying on that aircraft
42:17Because it is unstable
42:19It is susceptible to self-ignition
42:22By any kind of vibration and violent movement
42:27The official investigation into the crash
42:29Does not come to the conclusion that the Helderberg was carrying illegal arms
42:33But the rumours won't go away
42:36And more than ten years after the crash
42:39The dark theories force a very different South African government
42:43To take another look
42:53The Helderberg accident revealed that the 747 Kombi was vulnerable in the event of an onboard fire
43:00South African Airways immediately stops using the 747 Kombi
43:05American officials take notice
43:11And the FAA went through and developed some new regulations
43:15But for the weight and everything that was going to have to be added in there
43:19Did not make it an economically feasible
43:22And so essentially after the Helderberg accident
43:25747 Kombi's were not used anymore
43:36There are tributes and memorials to the 159 victims
43:41But closure does not come easily for the families
43:45I need an answer for why I was orphaned at 14
43:49And I feel that
43:52As I say, I'm probably touching on hearsay
43:55But there's a lot of evidence that does point to something not being right on that flight
44:01And that the flight was carrying something illicit
44:05Ten years after the Helderberg crash
44:08The new South African government launches a commission to re-examine the accident
44:15The Truth Commission was tasked with basically uncovering the truth about apartheid atrocities
44:20And one of the areas it was tasked to look at
44:23Was the role of the SAA in sanctions busting during the 80s
44:28And whether or not the Helderberg was a freak accident or not
44:33In 1998, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes a controversial conclusion
44:39Namely that nothing that was listed in the cargo manifest could have caused the fire
44:45And the Truth Commission recommended that there was something untoward about what had happened to the Helderberg
44:52The Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the improbabilities of the government version as to what had happened
45:00If nothing in the cargo inventory caused the fire
45:05What did?
45:06And how did it get on board?
45:09The reality unfortunately is unless
45:13Somebody today
45:15Comes up and says yes, I did this
45:18Or yes, we were responsible for this
45:20And you can prove them
45:22Not to be involved in a hoax
45:25Because that will be possibly the only time in which we will really know
45:30What had happened in and caused
45:33And was the source of ignition of the fire
45:37In its final report
45:39The Commission suggests that the Attorney General's Office continue to investigate the accident
45:44But surprisingly that has never happened
45:47The ANC-led government hasn't pursued that
45:49And of course we have to ask ourselves why
45:52And I think that the answer lies in what many people believe
45:56Is that it's just going to be too costly
46:01They don't want to open it for the simple reason that it would be financially disastrous for the airline
46:06Rennie van Sayle devoted years of his life to solving the mystery of the Helderberg
46:12His inability to definitely prove the cause for the fire
46:16Does not stop him from seeing the benefit of his investigation
46:19I believe that we as a team had done the best that we could
46:24Under extreme challenging conditions and circumstances
46:30What we had done had never been done before
46:33It was pioneering work
46:35The frustration is we could not establish the source of ignition
46:41And we would probably never know
46:46I believe that those people are still out there that know exactly what happened to that aircraft
46:51I know that their thought processes at the time were our country was at war
46:56And they were doing their duty for their country
47:00But I just feel that they should have a heart for the families and bring out that information
47:14To be continued...
47:17To be continued...
47:21To be continued...
47:28To be continued...