South Africa's transport ministry says it may re-open the investigation into the loss of a South African Airways (SAA) Boeing 747-200 Combi which crashed into the Indian Ocean in November 1987, claiming 159 lives. It is alleged that solid-state rocket fuel may have been carried as cargo.
Fresh information is being reviewed by the transport and justice ministers and by the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
The new information includes transcripts of in-camera testimonies to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission by former SAA chief executive, Gert van der Veer, and the airline's former flight operations chief, Mickey Mitchell.
The original commission of inquiry into the crash identified an on-board fire in the aft portion of the main deck as the cause of the crash. It failed to pinpoint the source of ignition as vital evidence - including the cargo manifest - went missing immediately after the crash happened.
The aircraft had departed Taipei for Johannesburg and crashed just east of Mauritius soon after the crew reported a fire.
It has long been rumoured that missile fuel was the cause of the fire. This was recently reinforced when forensics investigator Dr David Klatzow, who represented Boeing at the original inquiry, testified that the most probable cause of ignition was solid-state rocket fuel.
It has also come to light that just months before the accident, South African legislation was amended to enable the Commissioner of Civil Aviation, and anyone else granted similar authority, to issue exemptions from International Civil Aviation Organisation Annex 18 (The Safe Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Air) regulations if it was felt that the carriage of dangerous or prohibited goods on South African civil-registered aircraft was "in the public interest".
It is unclear whether an exemption had been granted for the crashed flight.
Source: Flight International
