6
GA
/ Vol. 5 / No. 3 / MARCH 2013
by Mike Wright
Photographs by Etienne du Plessis
Airline Industry
SAA Accidents
from 1937 - 1987
16 June 1937:
A Junkers Ju 52 (registration ZS-AK
Y) crashed on take-off at Port Eliza-
beth Airport following engine failure
in two engines and burnt out. All
aboard escaped. This was the airline's
first accident in which passengers were
injured.
16 October 1937:
A Junkers W34 fi (registration
ZS-AEC), named Sir George Grey,
crashed during a mail flight. The aero-
plane was damaged beyond repair.
28 March 1941:
A Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (reg-
istration ZS-AST) Elands Bay, South
Africa. All aboard were killed on
impact and in the post crash fire.
5 January 1948:
A Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (regis-
tration ZS-ASW), overran the runway
at Palmietfontein after landing deep.
The undercarriage was ripped-off and
the hull damaged beyond repair. There
were light injuries to passengers but no
fatalities.
15 October 1951:
A Douglas DC-3, (registration ZS-
AVJ) named Pardeberg, flew into
Mount Ingeli near Kokstad, Western
KwaZulu-Natal while flying in IMC
conditions. The aircraft was flying
from Port Elizabeth to Durban, South
Africa. A major contributing factor de-
termined by the board of inquiry was
the unserviceability of ground-based
radio navigational aids along the route.
Seventeen people were killed.
15 September 1952:
A Douglas DC-3, (registration ZS-
AVI) was damaged beyond repair
while attempting to land at an unlit
country airport at Carolina, South
Africa after the crew became lost
on a flight to Palmietfontein airfield,
Johannesburg from Livingstone,
Zambia. After attempting to hold
for thunderstorms to clear near their
destination the crew initiated a land-
ing when their fuel ran low. The al-
titude of the airfield was mis-judged
and the aircraft hit a rocky outcrop
on final approach to the runway. No
passengers or crew were killed
or injured
8 April 1954:
A de Havilland Comet, (registration
G-ALYY, aka 'Yoke Yoke') flight
SA201, departed Rome for Cairo and
Johannesburg. The aircraft crashed
off the coast of Italy killing all 21 peo-
ple on board. Along with BOAC
Flight 781, it was one of two Comet
crashes caused by a flaw in the design.
The de Havilland Comet was leased
from British Overseas Airways Cor-
poration.
29 October 1960:
Flight SA218, a Boeing 707-344A
(registration ZS-CKC), executed a
wheels-up landing at Nairobi airport
after damaging the undercarriage
during an impact with the ground on
its initial approach. No passengers or
crew were killed or injured but the
aircraft remained out of operation for
many months until it was repaired and
re-introduced to service.
6 March 1962:
Flight SA512, a Douglas DC-3
(registration ZS-DJC), crashed into
a mountainside in the vicinity of
Seymour, Eastern Cape, South Africa,
after the pilot insisted on conducting
flight as visual flight rules (VFR) while
flying below low cloud above rising
ground. The pilot and first officer were
killed but passengers and cabin staff
survived.
30 June 1962:
A Douglas DC-4 (registration ZS-
BMH) was involved in a mid-air
collision with a military Harvard train-
ing aircraft near Durban airport. The
military aircraft crashed but the crew
managed to land the airliner without
injury to passengers or crew despite
losing a large part of the vertical
stabiliser. The aircraft is the last DC-4
manufactured and was repaired and
returned to service. It is currently part
Above: The world's first jetliner: a BOAC
De Havilland Comet being refuelled
at Jan Smuts in 1953
Left: Passengers disembarking from a
Lockheed Lodestar in the 1950s.
Left: SAA Lockheed Constella-
tion `Kaapstad' at London
Heathrow North in 1953.
Above: SAA publicity photo from 1956 taken in PE featuring the most beautiful
propliner, a Lockheed Constellation and 1956 Ford Thunderbird.