South African Airways Boeing 747-244M ZS-SAS 'Helderberg'

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

ZS-SAS was a Boeing 747-244M (Combi) delivered to South African Airways (then known as Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens) on 24 November 1980. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7Q engines and was configured to carry 452 passengers in an all-passenger layout, 316 passengers with six cargo pallets in a Combi layout, or 19 passengers and 28 cargo pallets in an all-freight layout. ZS-SAS had a freight door on its left side between the L4 and L5 doors. It was named 'Helderberg', a region of South Africa known for wine production. The Boeing 747-200M was designed to fly up to 5,680 nautical miles. On November 27-28 1987, the Helderberg was flying between Taipei and Johannesburg via Mauritius. It was carrying 140 passengers and 19 crew as flight SA295. About 170 nautical miles northeast of Mauritius, the captain contacted the air traffic controller at the airport and declared an emergency. A fire had started in the forward-most cargo pallet on the right side. The cargo manifest included electronics, hardware, paper, textiles, and sports equipment. The fire was so intense that it melted the outer fuselage of the 747. SA295 eventually crashed into the Indian Ocean about 130 nautical miles from Mauritius. All 159 people onboard died. The debris field was located 16,100 feet underwater. Only the CVR was salvaged; the FDR was never found. The cause of the crash was a fire in the cargo hold, but the precise cause was undetermined. It was likely a lithium battery fire that burned the control cables, causing the plane to lose control and break up due to powerful g-forces. Credit to SketchVC10 for the template. #Crashed_aircraft