Mytery over air tragedy

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 1

Mytery over air tragedy

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg An empty dinghy and a few suitcases bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean are all that has been found after South Africa’s worst air disaster, in which all 160 passengers and crew are feared dead. South African Transport Ministry officials said they were mystified by the death plunge early on Saturday of a South African Airways Boeing 747 just 10 minutes before it was due to land at Mauritius’ Plaisance Airport after a flight from Taiwan. The last message from flight SA 295 was a radio report from the pilot, Captain D. J. Uys, that there was smoke in the cockpit “It obviously looks like an inflight fire, but we have no indication whatsoever how it happened,” said one official. The few oddments of debris

were seen by aircraft 210 km north-east of Mauritius. Finding the cause of the disaster is expected to be difficult because the sea at the point where the aircraft crashed is about 3600 m deep, one expert said. ; The Transport Minister; Mr Eli Louw, said all 160 people.aboard the plane were feared to have died. A partial passenger,"list released by S.A.A. said 43 Japanese, 23 Taiwanese, two. Australians, a West German, a Dane, a , Briton and a Dutchman, as well as 38 South Africans were aboard the aircraft .! ■ ■■ Asked about the possibility of sabotage, an S.A.A. .spokesman, Nico Venter, said: “We cannot speculate about what happened on board the aircraft.” Ships and aircraft from four nations joined the; search and converged on the debris. After

dark me air search was called off until today. A spokesman for the Australian Air Force said Australia was joining the search. An Orion reconnaissance aircraft was ex-

pected to link up with a South African team last evening. The worst previous disaster in South African commercial aviation was in 1968 when 122 people died in the crash of a Boeing 707 at Windhoek.