In memory of SAA Flight 295’s victims

FAR beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean lie the wreckage of an airliner and the remains of its ill-fated passengers.

Thirty-one years ago today, on November 28, 1987, the airliner, SAA Flight 295, carrying 184 souls and an extremely dangerous cargo of unstable rocket fuel components, crashed into the sea off the east coast of Mauritius, killing all on board.

Almost certainly, the tragedy was caused by the embattled Nationalist Party’s PW Botha and his desperate effort to acquire war materiel for his clandestine military adventures north of then South-West Africa’s borders.

Carrying this type of cargo on a civilian aircraft broke the Civil Aviation Authority’s most stringent rules.

Rather than reveal the contraband cargo at some foreign airport, Captain Dawie Uys, under threat of losing the pension that was due to him at the flight’s end, was forced to fly the burning and probably disintegrating aircraft till its inevitable crash. Blighting the lives of the families of his victims forever probably counted for little for Botha.

The victims’ families continue to mourn their loss and trust that in God’s good time the truth will come out. Until that time, together with the others, the Ackermann and Cockcroft families cherish the memory of Gina, wife, mother, sister, daughter, and of her baby daughter, Samantha.

May their dear souls rest in peace. NEIL VEITCH

Kenilworth