13/03/2025
๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก ๐๐ - ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ.
(๐ค๐๐กโ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐คโ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐.)
๐๐๐ ๐
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
On the evening of 13 March 1967, South African Airways Flight SA406, a Vickers Viscount 818 named Rietbok, was on its final approach to East London Airport. It had been an uneventful journey from Port Elizabeth, and as the aircraft descended towards its destination, Captain Bill Mostertโs voice crackled over the radio:
โEast London 406 we are now 20 miles out and we are seaward of the coastline and decending through 4,000 feet"
"Roger, we will attempt an approach on runway 10"
Weโre at 2,000 feet and clear of cloud. We should be touching down in two minutes.โ
It would be the last message ever received from Rietbok.
Moments later, the aircraft vanished. No distress call was made. No sign of trouble had been reported. It simply disappeared into the night.
The next morning, the grim truth became evident. The wreckage of Rietbok was discovered floating in the sea, about six kilometres off Hood Point. Search and rescue teams worked tirelessly, recovering debris and, tragically, the bodies of 21 of the 25 people on board.
Among the victims was George Prentice, South Africaโs Deputy Minister of Transportโa chilling detail given the strange circumstances surrounding the crash. Yet, despite extensive efforts, the aircraftโs cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were never found, leaving investigators with little more than theories to explain what had happened.
** ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป:
The official inquiry, led by Judge Cecil Margo, suggested that the captain, Gordon Benjamin Lipawsky, may have suffered a heart attack, causing him to lose control, with first officer Brian Trenwith unable to regain command before the aircraft plunged into the sea.
However, in his book Final Postponement, Margo pointed instead to structural failure as the likely cause of the disaster.
Adding further intrigue, Navy diver Malcolm Viviers claimed in 1998 that the wreck had in fact been located soon after the crash and that via a video monitor aboard the SAS Johannesburg, he had seen the bodies of passengers still strapped into their seats in the plane.
Forensic scientist Dr. David Klatzow, who exposed flaws in the investigation of the 1987 Helderberg air disaster, was approached years later by victims' relatives. He recalled seeing a post-mortem report stating that one of the passengers had died of multiple injuriesโdespite no bodies ever being found. โSo there was a post-mortem report without a body,โ Klatzow remarked, further labelling the official investigation as a โsham.โ
** ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐บ๐โ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐:
A deeply troubling aspect of the Rietbok crash was the disappearance of the victimsโ remains. Professor JP Bruwer, vice-rector of the then University of Port Elizabeth and acting chair of the Broederbond, was one of the passengers. His daughter, G***t le Roux, recalled how her family was asked to identify his bodyโonly to be told upon arrival that no bodies were available. She was not alone. Other families reported similar experiences, with one woman stating that morgue workers had described in detail the clothing and jewellery her daughter was wearing, yet later denied having the body at all.
In a further bizarre twist, Le Rouxโs brother, a licensed pilot, sought permission to fly over the crash site but was informed the airspace was restricted. When he later asked to listen to the final cockpit communication, he was initially granted accessโonly for the recording to mysteriously disappear when he sought a second opinion from a friend.
Even more chillingly, officials later visited Le Rouxโs mother and demanded she sign a letter pledging to remain silent about the crash. Around the same time, her younger brother was approached at his high school by two secret service officers, questioning whether he had personally seen his father board the aircraft. โIt was like they were making sure it was the right person who was dead,โ Le Roux noted.
** ๐ฃ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ผ๐๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป?
JP Bruwer had begun attracting suspicion from hard-line elements within the ruling National Party. He was fostering ties with African leaders, including Malawiโs Hastings Banda, and had been considered for a diplomatic post. Le Roux believed her father was targeted because of his influence over Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd and his push to soften apartheid policies. โMy father wrote the speech Verwoerd was due to deliver before he was assassinated. We think Verwoerd was killed to prevent him making that speech. My aunt told me that after my father attended Verwoerdโs memorial service, he told her, โIโm the next one.โโ
** ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ช๐ถ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐๐:
Ian Boyd, the son of SAA pilot James Boyd, recounted his fatherโs involvement in the Rietbok salvage efforts. Boyd Sr. had flown over the wreck site and boarded a minesweeper dispatched to search for debris. Then, shockingly, days later, he was found dead in his hotel room in East London. Officials quickly declared it a heart attack, yet no post-mortem was conducted. His death certificate was signed by a doctor in Benoniโdespite Boyd dying in East London.
Before his death, Boyd had called his wife, telling her he suspected โshady thingsโ were taking place. Days later, he was cremated without the family ever seeing his body. โSo you had two SAA pilots, Lipawsky and my father, apparently dying of heart attacks in the space of a week,โ his son remarked grimly.
** ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฒ๐:
Among the passengers was Audrey Rosenthal, an American activist and sworn enemy of apartheid. Rosenthal had met with journalist Jimmy Matyu just hours before the crash, expressing fear that she was being followed. She carried a light brown briefcase, which was never recovered from the wreckage.
Former East London mayor and apartheid security police officer Donald Card later admitted that South African authorities had been desperate to retrieve that briefcase. Another ex-police officer confirmed they were ordered to search the coastline in case it washed ashore. โWe were given instructions to look for that briefcase. We wanted to see if there was information about who she had contacted in South Africa.โ
Adding to the intrigue, Rosenthalโs close friend, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, believed that Rosenthal had been lured into a trap. Activists were boycotting South Africa at the time, and there was no logical reason for Rosenthal to have been thereโunless she had been sent on a su***de mission.
** ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฝ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐จ๐ป๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฟ๐๐๐ต:
In 1998, families of the victims petitioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reopen the case. Their request was denied. That same year, the Ocean Stroom, a vessel equipped with advanced oceanic profiling sonar, detected debris off Kayserโs Beach. While wreckage was confirmed, the main fuselage remained buried beneath the sand, frustrating efforts to determine the precise cause of the crash.
East London author Alan D. Elsdon, a former policeman, later published The Tall Assassin, alleging that a bomb had been placed aboard Rietbok by a member of the Bureau of State Security (BOSS). Though presented as fiction, Elsdon insists his book is โ95% true.โ
** ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
In one of the most thorough modern investigations of the Rietbok disaster, commercial pilot and forensic investigator Wouter Botes has undertaken a detailed reconstruction of the flight and its final moments. The lack of a wreck and flight recorders posed a significant challenge, but Botes successfully located the current position of the aircraft debris, which was nowhere near the initially presumed crash site.
His findings indicate that the aircraft flew too low, with the left wing striking the water, causing the nose to impact first and disintegrate. The rapid water influx then forced the cabin roof to split open. Within 10 seconds, it was over.
While Botes acknowledges the many โcoincidencesโ and conspiracy theories surrounding the crash, his investigation found no evidence to support these claims. His conclusion: Rietbok was an aviation accident.
Botes now plans to recover two pieces of the wreckageโone for the East London Museum and the other for the SAA Museum at Rand Airportโwhile the remainder will remain undisturbed as a memorial site. He revealed that a nose section, which washed ashore weeks after the crash, is believed to be buried between the runways at OR Tambo Airport, though its exact location remains unknown.
** ๐๐ป ๐จ๐ป๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐:
The Rietbok disaster remains one of South Africaโs most perplexing aviation tragedies. The lost black box, missing bodies, unexplained deaths, and political undercurrents all point to a story that refuses to be neatly closed.
Was Rietbok simply the victim of tragic human error? Or was it the target of something far more sinister?
Perhaps, buried beneath the waves, the truth still waits to be uncovered.
