Air Rhodesia Flight RH825

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Air Rhodesia Flight RH825

Summary
Date	September 3, 1978
Type	Civilian airliner shoot-down
Site	West of Karoi 16°47′S 29°5′E / -16.783, 29.083Coordinates: 16°47′S 29°5′E / -16.783, 29.083
Passengers	52
Crew	4
Fatalities	48 (38 in crash followed by the execution of 10 at the crash site)
Survivors	8
Aircraft type	Vickers Viscount
Operator	Air Rhodesia
Tail number	VP-WAS
Flight origin	Salisbury
Last stopover	Kariba
Destination	Salisbury

Air Rhodesia Flight RH825 was a scheduled flight flying from Kariba to Salisbury that was shot down on September 3, 1978 by ZIPRA terrorists using a SA-7 surface-to-air missile^[1]

Contents 1 Incident 2 Air Rhodesia Flight RH827 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Incident

The Vickers Viscount aircraft named The Hunyani was operating a scheduled service between Kariba and Salisbury. Five minutes after taking off from Kariba, passengers heard a loud bang from the starboard engine. At 5:10pm the pilot, Captain John Hood, sent a distress call to air traffic control informing them that he'd lost both starboard engines, and was going to crash.^[2]

Captain Hood managed to maintain control of the aircraft as it descended, and aimed it for a cotton field in the bush, west of Karoi in the Whamira Hills. The pilot told the passengers to brace for impact; seconds later, the fuselage and wings started scraping against the tops of trees, before the wheels touched down smoothly. However a 4 meter wide irrigation ditch that crossed the field caused the plane to pitch over and catch fire.

Eighteen of the fifty-six passengers survived the crash, with most of these having been seated in the rear. Five of the survivors went to a local village to ask for water. However upon returning, they heard African voices and automatic gunfire - ZIPRA guerrillas summarily executed 10 of the survivors still at the aircraft before looting it. Three crash survivors who remained at the aircraft managed to avoid being killed by playing dead.^[3]

Joshua Nkomo claimed in a BBC interview that his guerrillas had shot the aircraft down^[4], saying that it was being used for military purposes, but denied killing the survivors. Five days after the disaster, the Rhodesian government confirmed that the plane had been shot down by a Strela 2 missile.

[edit] Air Rhodesia Flight RH827

Main article: Air Rhodesia Flight RH827

Air Rhodesia Flight RH827, Umniati, was another scheduled flight between Kariba and Salisbury that was shot down on 12 February 1979 by ZIPRA guerrillas using a Strela 2 missile in similar circumstances to Flight RH825.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Hunyani Disaster