The Helderberg Conspiracy

By Steven Webb

Think of everything that you know, or thought you knew about the 1987 South African Airways Flight 295 air disaster, and ask yourself whether or not you are 100% sure that the information that has for years been propagated as being fact, is not perhaps fiction.
With the help of experts in their fields, such as former and current airline pilots, psychologists, fire experts and even a South African Airways’ technical investigator, who took part in this tragic investigation, this book will bring you an alternative view on the many theories that have been passed off as fact and looks at what may have happened on board flight 295 that November night in 1987.
From suspect cockpit voice recorder transcripts, to the use of incorrect transcripts during the South African Airways Investigation Board hearings, the interpretation of parts of these same transcripts have led to the support of many of the current theories. Read about words on a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder that gave rise to theories of ‘first fires’ and specific timelines, to theories of what the aircraft was carrying on board.
This book will show an altogether different position to the theory that this accident was a case of ‘state sanctioned murder’, a term used by one family member and a theory supported by many. By looking at each and every theory, this book will show that what has, up to now, been considered as fact, may just be fiction.
About the author:
Steven Webb was born in 1961 in the United Kingdom and came to South Africa at the age of ten. After school he worked in the mining environment for a while before doing his National Service and then joined the Johannesburg Emergency Services. He has lived and worked in Botswana and Zambia and now lives in Boksburg with his wife Pam. They have three children and five grandchildren.
Steven is a Paramedic by trade, working in the HSE industry in a mining environment. In his spare time he likes to play golf, read and build wooden model ships.
In 2006 he turned his hand to writing and in 2008 his first book was published. The Helderberg Conspiracy is his third book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Webb
• Release date: Sep 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9780620708340

Steven Webb

Full name: Steven WebbD.O.B: 28th October 1961Place of Birth: Wiltshire, United KingdomEducation: Barberton High schoolFavourite authors: Bryce Courtenay,Wilbur Smith,Nelson DeMille,Mark Giminez,Lee ChildFavourite sports: Golf and rugbyFavourite team: Sharks and SpringboksFavourite pastimes: Camping, writing, reading, building modelsFavourite meal: Chops, eggs and chips.Favourite films: We were soldiers once...and young,Apollo 13Wild HogsI came to South Africa in 1971 when I was just ten years old, with my parents, my brother Andrew and my sister Kirsty.After spending some time at both Welkom High and Capricorn High Schools, I finished my schooling at Barberton High School. I came to love Barberton and the Lowveld with a passion that I still feel today. The town is steeped in history and is located in a part of the country that I can only describe as being Gods country. It was from Barberton that I left to do my national service as related in my first book Ops Medic: A National Serviceman’s Border War.After national service In 1986 I joined the Johannesburg Emergency Services and have spent the main part of my career as a paramedic, which is what my second book Paramedics: Lights and Sirens is about.I am married to Pamela and have three step-children, Paul, Chantelle and Crystal and two grandchildren. Chantelle married Wayne in 2009 and on Valentine’s Day 2010 our grandson, Malachi Joshua arrived in the world. Eighteen months later our beautiful granddaughter Makayla was born.I like to spend time with good friends and my family. I am presently doing remote site work, so spend half of my time away from home, which is in Boksburg, South Africa.Update:In May 2016 our second grandson, Tyler James, was born to my youngest daughter Crystal. I now hold a full time position on a Copper Mine in Zambia, but still travel.The Helderberg Conspiracy is my third book.

Book preview

In Memoriam

Foreword

Author’s Note

Divine Intervention

The Beginning

Secrets and Lies

Theory or Fact?

SAA Flight Crash and Incident History

The Helderberg – Serial no: 22171 – ZS-SAS

Meteorological Information - Route Conditions

Pressure Systems and Aircraft Structure

Tracking

Operation Resolve

SAA Log

Cockpit Voice Recordings

Dinner or Breakfast?

Contrary to Theory

Communications

Enhanced CVR

SELCAL – Selective Calling

Calling for Help

The Missing Tape

Aviation Alerts

Pilot’s Voice Stress

Time Zones and Their Relevancy

Medical Information

Illness vs Allergy

Theory Upon Theory

Aircraft Wiring

The Cargo – The Burgoyne Report

Dangerous Cargo

Burgoyne Report – The Fire

Affidavits

Non-specific Allegations and Theories

A Differing of Opinions

In the News

Class ‘B’ Cargo Compartments – Findings and recommendations

Insurance and Claims

The SAAIB Final Report

Truth and Reconciliation Investigation

Special Investigation – Scorpions

Those Who Perished

Epilogue

References

Additional Photos

In Memoriam

On the 10th March 2016, Trevor Perfect passed away after a long illness. He was a man whom I admired and respected immensely. He was a man of great integrity and a friend. His enthusiasm was contagious. He was invaluable with his assistance in the writing of this book and without him this book may never have gotten started let alone finished. Unfortunately Trevor passed away just one week before I completed the manuscript.

Farewell Trevor, may you rest with the angels.

Foreword

It is a great honour, pleasure and extremely humbling to write in answer to Steven’s request the foreword to his book – The Helderberg Conspiracy: Fact or Fiction? In that not only do I know Steven on a personal level as a friend and minister, but also the late Trevor Perfect (1941 – 2016), the head of the Helderberg investigation (Technical) for SAA, who is mentioned in the Memoriam page of this book.

Concerning Trevor, I need to say at this point that he was one of those few incredible men whom one meets who leaves a lasting impression, an extremely godly man, a perfect gentleman, humble and very highly respected by those of us who knew him.

It has been said that the truth has many enemies and of those the lie is the most conspicuous, but also the most destructive, and nowhere is the truth of that perhaps shown more clearly than in the horrendous incident of the Helderberg air disaster, an event which occurred during one of the most critical periods of South African history. A time when South Africa, due to government policy, faced the condemnation of the world and with it what we would call a ‘civil war’, and it is perhaps due to these events that the Helderberg air crash, although horrendous and shocking in itself, took on a new light as theories, rumours and gossip during and after that time gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories and fantasy, all bedevilled by what Steven Webb magnificently brings out in this book and shows as a distortion and deliberate falsification of the facts, all blurring the picture to give rise to completely unfounded legends.

As a person and writer Steven is an extremely humble man, a man who doesn’t seek attention for himself, nor is that his desire. Instead, as in his previous books, he writes with a heart and a passion tendentiously re-examining the great issues raised by this most poignant disaster of modern times. In doing so quite markedly Steven demonstrates his own immense interrogative skill in what could really be called a root-and-branch re-examination of the catastrophe, and he does so not in a flashy narrative but by putting the events, happenings, circumstances under close scrutiny, all as he seeks to throw a little light on some very dark corners as he grapples with truth, to show us how wary we should be of much well-established and plausible-sounding gossip that unfortunately at times passes for the truths of history.

I highly endorse Steven Webb’s enormously interesting and well-written book, brilliantly detailed for lay people like myself and gripping, yet in its writing it is from Steven a very personal book, as always.

Finally, many books have been written about this event, often stimulating very lively debate, but as always truth is more powerful than fiction, and as you read through the pages of this investigation my prayer is that you will be held from the first page to the last as one is faced by amazing logical evidence that becomes an unforgettable and haunting reading experience of a tragedy. May the readers decide for themselves.

Highly recommended,

Reverend Mark Des Fountain

Johannesburg, South Africa

April 2016

Author’s Note

I know that to many people this isn’t the book that is going to provide you, the reader, with any degree of certainty, with the answers that you are looking for, simply because of what you have been led to believe. I recommend that one reads ‘The Final Resolve’ by Mark D. Young. In that book there is enough factual information available, which is also available online, to indicate the direction in which your answers lay. I hope that by the time you have finished this book you may start to look and think about things in a different light, and start asking the very same questions that I have asked, hopefully perhaps, even changing your minds about certain things; that, however, is a decision for you to make.

Changing your minds is not my chief objective. I know how difficult it is to have believed in something for so long and then have someone tell you that things may not be what they seem. I am simply providing a different perspective on things as they have been related, and where necessary pointing out that what is wrong has an influence on everything else, and can have repercussions further down the line. Then, the end result may be anything other than what has been imagined.

You may choose to ignore everything you read here - that is your prerogative - and to some of you this book may well seem to be offensive because it does not fit in with popular beliefs, things that you may believe occurred, or situations that existed. It was not my intention to offend anyone, and I apologise if you feel that way, but it is time that someone said what needs to be said. Objectivity and an open mind, coupled with sound logic, are what are required when reading this book, and if you can’t do that whilst reading this then may I suggest you don’t read it at all. All too often other possibilities have been overlooked because in some minds there can simply be no other possibility. That is clearly not true. So I would like you to take a moment and think this next point through very carefully in your own mind, and ask yourself: is everything I know true, beyond a shadow of a doubt? I ask that simply because that is how everything has been portrayed - as the truth, as fact. I will show you throughout this book that errors were made on both sides.

All of the proposed theories that you read about in this book have been built on the premise that certain situations and conditions existed, and these have been expounded upon over the years by individuals and organisations in the press, via radio and television and/or documentary film interviews, as well as during the various commissions and follow-up investigations, but have yet to be proved. The question here must be where does the onus of proof lie? Well, one might be surprised to discover that the burden of proof in these cases lies with the plaintiff. These theories are now a matter of public knowledge and in most cases have been touted as part of the chain of events leading up to the cause of this tragedy. There is plenty of room to manoeuvre with these theories. Therefore all this information has been used to illustrate certain points, theories and various facts throughout this book. South African Airways has constantly and persistently denied any wrongdoing.

It would seem that most of the affidavits, statements, sworn or otherwise, and ‘contemporaneous notes’, which were used in any sort of manner, or submitted to the Margo Commission, the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Committee), or to other interested parties, and to and by the media, were taken at face value. In the case of the media, and one reporter in particular, most of his reporting was pretty spectacular by nature to say the least, but his reporting did have the required effect - it made people sit up and ask questions. I do believe, however, that the wrong questions were asked on the basis of the information provided. So when I say that all of this information had been taken at face value, it had been done so presumably because of who the people were and what they were, or what and perhaps whom they represented, because people of such stature, of good social standing, people like pilots, engineers, employees of the airline are people with integrity, and for what reason would they have to manufacture information?

Some of the theories that are to be found in this book originated from newspaper articles in the 90s, some theories have been attributed to particular individuals, and some of those theories have since been promoted by groups of individuals. It is very difficult, however, to attribute any one theory to a specific individual, although our intrepid reporter from the 90s was one such person who had his fair share of the more spectacular of those. It must be remembered, though, that it is not the person who promotes the idea of any particular theory as being fact, but the theory itself with which the argument lies. The theory that the Helderberg was carrying contraband because there were other alleged instances of aircraft doing the same thing is simply a case of false cause. There are many theories that I do not agree with, and nor do I agree with either the manner in which some of their deductions are arrived at, or how they were presented, but these are opinions to which we are all entitled.

Although trust is an inherent human trait, it is dished out with much reservation, because we all want to trust people, so to all of you who are of the opinion that whatever our leading experts have said is true because of who they are, why are people all so adamant that the Helderberg aircraft crash investigators, other airline personnel, medical practitioners, ATC staff and many, many more people like them are complicit in a cover-up? These are all people of the same standing. These are also people of integrity, cut from the same cloth, including a pilot and his crew who, it is said, ignored his training and international law, all for an item of cargo that was reputedly on board. In my book that is simply unfair, even more so because that pilot and his crew cannot defend themselves. How does one justify the accusation that one is wrong but the other isn’t? It is all fair and well that one accuses the government, but we all know what sort of answer one will receive from that quarter, and it certainly won’t be an admission of guilt.

Either way, I hope that one day you all find what you are looking for, the truth, irrespective of what form that truth takes.

To those of you who lost loved ones on this flight, I offer you my sincere condolences.

1

Divine Intervention

In 2010 I included a chapter on the Helderberg in the book Paramedics: Lights and Sirens. I included this chapter because what I had seen of the wreckage had had a significant effect on me. I was attending an Aviation Medicine course at the time and during a field trip to the International Airport we had been taken to the Debris Centre, where all the salvaged items and components from the Helderberg were brought for further investigation. It was beyond doubt the most sobering site I had ever seen in my life, and nothing I see ever again will compare to this. Somewhere down in the recesses of my subconscious mind a seed had been sown that day. Whilst writing that chapter back in 2010, I thought that perhaps I might like to do a book on the Helderberg, especially considering the amount of controversy that surrounded the disaster. What form it would take I had no idea at the time but I knew that some of the theories were just too good to be true - and with all the rumours running around back then it was a subject probably best left alone.

The one thing, however, that was off-putting about taking on a project of this magnitude was the thought of having to deal with any sort of bureaucracy, which is why I sometimes wish I had the capacity and imagination to write a novel instead. Having written two books already where information from bureaucratic sources was required, I knew how much running from pillar to post and consequent time-wasting I would be doing, while getting very little information in return for it, least of all the results that I would need to get this book off the ground. Not to mention the fact that we had had a change in government in the meantime, so there was always a chance that documents may have gone astray, and so on. Up to a point, this has turned out to be the case once again, with limitations being set on what I can and cannot have in terms of information and confidentiality. Not that I have an issue with confidentiality, but as fate will have it, the majority of the information I needed was provided to me.

At the outset I knew of no one who had been involved in the disaster, or where to find anyone who had been involved, or even people who knew people who had been involved. It was a vicious circle, because in order to try to find anyone I would have had to go back to those same government departments, and I would end up running into those very same stumbling blocks as was the case in the previous books. It makes for a very frustrating ordeal, and if any of the theories that were circulating were true, or even half-true, the bureaucracy was going to be overwhelming and quite possibly limiting on what sort of and how much information they would allow me access to, if any - and that was only if it was still available at all. In many cases where I have made a request for information, people have simply ignored me, thinking that I am simply hopping onto the controversy bandwagon.

I watched several documentaries on the Helderberg, and found that in some of them family members have made blatant accusations, while in others people have reported that the theories as they stand are fact, and that in one instance there is irrefutable proof thereof. Allegedly the aircraft was carrying illegal cargo and it was that cargo that caused the crash of the aircraft. The nature of the cargo, though, seems to change from person to person, and no one seems to have even considered an alternative reason. It has become a popular belief that it was without doubt something in the cargo hold that caused the aircraft’s downfall, but does that make it true because of the theories’ popularity?

Anyway, without even leaving the starting block, the project seemed doomed right from the start. That wasn’t to say that it was shelved completely, but just postponed, so to speak. I would need to find another way around those hurdles if I wanted to write this book, so for a while at least, it was on the back burner. I don’t recall exactly what led up to the following sequence of events, but it was somewhere around September of 2014 when the pastor at our local church, Reverend Mark Des Fountain, and I were chatting, and he mentioned my first book (Ops Medic), and said that he was keen on reading it. As I had spare copies of both books, the second of which he didn’t even know about, I gave him a copy of both. It turned out to be a very fortuitous decision.

It was while I was away at work that Rev. Mark told my wife that he wanted to introduce me to someone whom he thought I may be interested in talking to. Apparently the person in question had something to do with the Helderberg disaster and the subsequent investigation! I had no idea what role this person played in the Helderberg investigation, and didn’t want to get my own hopes up in case this person, who was yet unknown to me, was not in a position to help me, or even wanted to for that matter. As it turned out, the person Rev. Mark wanted to introduce me to was a gentleman by the name of Trevor Perfect, who just happened to be a Senior Officer of the South African Airways Technical Investigation Team assigned to the Helderberg Accident. That elusive opportunity which I had been searching for had just been presented to me. It was an opportunity that I was determined to grab with both hands. All I would need was Trevor’s assistance.

It took another couple of weeks before Trevor and I actually met one Sunday morning after church service. For twenty minutes people sidestepped the two of us while we stood animatedly discussing aspects of the tragedy that befell that fateful airliner, before we were eventually both dragged away by our spouses - but not before he had given me his number and an invitation to come and chat, which of course I was determined to do. During that brief twenty minutes with Trevor, I felt the sense of a man who was so dedicated to his craft that I could feel his passion - it was contagious. He had after all lived and breathed the Helderberg for many years. I was to feel the full effect of his passion at our first meeting. I suspect that there was also, to a certain extent, an underlying sense of anger as well, which one really couldn’t blame him for considering that indirectly perhaps he, along with the other members of the investigation team, the SAA management team and whoever else was involved had been and essentially were still being accused of complicity in what some people see as a massive cover-up.

So not only had Rev Mark found that elusive ‘someone’ for me, he had found one of the Senior Investigators of the SAA Technical team! It was a gift horse that one could not look in the mouth. A man of the cloth had brought us together, and there was something to be said about that. It was fate, and I am a firm believer in that. I read all the material I could get my hands on and which had been provided to me, but when it came to the theories I had to force myself to look at them with an objective eye, while attempting to look at them from someone else’s perspective, especially when some of them flew in the face of logic despite the facts provided by the investigators. But people believed in these theories, and it was up to me to try and work out why. I tried to imagine how I would see things, how I would feel and what I would think if I had had a family member on that flight. It was very difficult.

I was determined to at least make an attempt, as far as was practically possible, to write this book with an open mind as far as the ‘theories’ were concerned; the facts and logic may tell a different story. At times it has been extremely difficult, especially when it comes to some of the more outrageous accusations. I would, however, look at each and every theory and see if it worked against the known information provided, and if I couldn’t get my head around it, well then I would stand it up against logic and the experience of an investigator and other experts I consulted.

The more I thought about this, the more I started to get that tingle up my spine that I get when I find something worthwhile writing about. Despite my desire to write this book though, it took a lot of soul-searching on my behalf to eventually get the computer out and start banging away on the keyboard. The sheer volumes of information were staggering. I read reports on the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) on the first fire, as well as those from the SAA Flight Engineers Association, the DCA report, TRC hearings, the SAAIB (South African Airways Investigation Board – Margo Commission) reports and many, many more, some of which I did not find convincing at all.

The main issue to me, though, was that I was also a little worried about the families of the victims of 295. They had already suffered so much; did they need this to be brought up again? Then I reasoned that 295 will never go away because of those very same theories. For instance, the annual radio shows that come up every year claiming the same things over and over are a constant reminder, and it seems that as each individual who claims that he or she was involved in this supposedly ‘TOP SECRET’ event comes forth at every anniversary with more deathbed confessions, it never will go away. Many of the families are still investigating the accident themselves; some are writing about it and it surprises me that they have not yet asked themselves the same questions as those asked here. And I need to ask why.

I felt that there were flaws in the description of events as they unfolded and that the families of those who perished had latched onto those theories because they had nothing else - and one can hardly blame them for that. When asked about one theory or another that had been put forward as being the most probable theory with regard to the pilot continuing his flight despite the fire, one family member stated that he thought it was the only possible reason. This was blind faith in what he had been told or heard or even read in the newspapers considering that he had not even been born at the time of the Helderberg accident. Others had believed that their loved ones had died in a simple aircraft accident. Was it the newspaper articles that started to appear telling of all sorts of stories about two fires and illegal cargo that changed their minds? Had they sat and thought about it, perhaps they might have come up with another result. It is a fallacy that everything you read in the papers is true, and similarly everything you are told is not true. Newspapers are there to sell and to make money, nothing else, and sometimes at the expense of the truth.

Perhaps it was because of articles like this that these theories snowballed and became the truth as people knew it by becoming a group belief, and if one believed it so all believed it. Now I have been told that there are some families who did not agree with these theories. My contribution to this saga is just something else that may in all likelihood create even more questions than answers, but I hope it will provide a more plausible reason for what may have occurred.

The long search, the eventual recovery and subsequent investigation was, I believe, undertaken with all good intentions, up to a point. If there was any skulduggery going on I would like to think it was apart from the physical investigation itself, which was conducted by Rennie van Zyl, Trevor and his team, along with the National Transportation Safety Board (USA), Directorate of Civil Aviation (SA), Federal Aviation Administration (USA), the manufacturers Boeing (USA), and of course South African Airways, who were the operators. Because if there was something amiss at that point it would call into question the reputations and integrity of every single one of those organisations, and cast doubt on all previous and future investigations - and that would set back the entire aviation industry for decades to come. Besides, accusations like that carry some worrying implications.

Are we ever going to fully know what happened to that aircraft, and what caused the fire? I believe we already have that knowledge, thanks to the author of the book ‘The Final Resolve’, Mark D Young. I think that Mark is probably the closest anyone has been to the most probable cause of the fire. In my opinion we need to open our minds to the possibility that this tragedy may very well have been just an accident. I cannot just blindly accept that because of some irregularities, most of which have virtually no proof and have alternative explanations, the mood of the day and government attitudes at the time, coupled with the extrapolation of events into theories that are mostly circumstantial at best, that this whole incident was something far more sinister. It just doesn’t make sense - not to me anyway.

With most people who recognised the times we were living in, when South Africa was weighed down by sanctions and embargoes, the first thought that went through their minds was ‘what was on that aircraft that shouldn’t have been on it in order to bring it down?’ This was even mentioned by Debora Patta in a documentary on the accident by Air Crash Investigations titled Fanning the Flames, but it was indicative of the feelings of the time. It was incredible how paranoid we were as a people at that time. It was also presumptive, for even if there was anything on board, who was to say that it was that which caused the fire? If that is what you believe then that is obviously your choice, but I think that the alternatives should be given a fair shake - and you may be in for a surprise!

I had the incredible fortune - or thought I had - to be put in touch with a former South African Airways air hostess/cabin attendant who was the best friend of and who had flown many routes with Magdalena Kruger, one of the cabin attendants who died on the Helderberg. The two of them had apparently grown up together. I approached this person through her stepson, with whom I worked, with a view to putting some questions to her to which she had kindly consented, before obviously having a change of heart, because in the end she didn’t answer them. I can only hazard a guess as to why, but must respect her decision.

In several emails from her husband, however, who just happened to be a former SA Navy Marine Commander, something struck me that I had yet to think of. In the context of some of the theories and the actions concerning the aircraft’s captain, what he said made horrifying sense, yet would have called into question the pilot’s integrity, amongst many other things. It had been claimed that Captain Uys had been recalled to active service for this flight. Now I am going to float an idea here, or a theory if you like, and I have no idea if this is even legal or possible - it is probably both illegal and impossible! If Captain Uys had been recalled to active service and was the commander of Flight 295, and had been given strict instructions or orders to fly, would that make 295 a military flight? Would that even be legal in terms of civilian aviation law?

Anyway, this gentleman warned me that if I wanted the truth I should be prepared to upset the apple cart in more ways than one. Somehow I think that is likely to happen irrespective of what I put in this book. In one email he actually warned me that my life may even be in danger if I dug around in the wrong circles. Well, I wasn’t too worried about that as I am convinced the truth has already been told, but his comments to me made it clear that he thought it hadn’t. I believe the cause of the crash has already been established, and you will see why I believe that as you continue to read. In a couple of emails that I received from another gentleman who was named in this saga - I will refrain from naming him - I sensed a feeling of despair that this whole issue had not gone away, and in one particular email he made a point of mentioning the dangers involved in being too vocal ‘back then’. It is one of the reasons why I have refrained from interviewing people involved in the Helderberg incident. I am of the opinion that no one is likely to change his or her opinion, especially those who still feel an element of, or a perceived threat, and certainly not those who actually put pen to paper. This would only support the argument that anyone at this stage could put anything on a piece of paper because no one could prove anything, and it is not likely that anyone was about to retract any statement.

If there was anybody in danger, believe me that list would be long and impressive, but I certainly would be way down at the bottom of it, and I think that there would be others who have been more vocally opposed to the government, Armscor and SAA who may well be at the top of it. Considering I was not one of them, then I had nothing to worry about. There are families who are still investigating the accident who would be near to the top of the list, as well as those who continue to blame the various organisations involved, not to mention the numerous individuals who openly brag and claim to ‘know what happened but were told not to say anything’, and who are still floating around the world with whatever knowledge they think they have in their heads.

It was after reading one of his emails that I recalled that during my National Service I signed the Secrecy Act. I think everyone did, since this was a document that prevented everyone from discussing anything relating to the military. What I had forgotten was that this document extended beyond your initial term of service in the military and, as someone pointed out, if anything were to come out there may still be