The day Botha killed Machel Courtesy of the Zimbabwe Herald WHEN the plane of Mozambique’s revolutionary leader, Samora Machel, crashed on the night of October 19, 1986 killing him and 34 others, Apartheid South Africa immediately blamed it on "pilot error". He returned to Mozambique in 1964 and when FRELIMO launched the independence war in September that year, he led FRELIMO's first guerilla attack against the Portuguese in northern Mozambique.He rapidly rose up the ranks in FRELIMO and became the head of the army after the death of its first commander, Filipe Samuel Magaia, in October 1966. He believed in guerilla war and his army soon established itself among the country’s poor.The activities of the revolutionary FRELIMO army weakened the Portuguese rule considerably. President Samora Machel and twenty-four others died when the plane crashed in the mountainous terrain near Mbuzini near Komatipoort. On the facts, the flight proceeded even though the fuel situation on board would have indicated that the crew would have a critical reserve once they reached Maputo.As that reserve was insufficient to permit a diversion back to Beira, the crew had basically painted themselves into a corner.

His father, being a black Mozambican, was classified as "indigena"—a demeaning term for natives. What if I must land somewhere else?

"When pressed about this view, Vitaliy pointed out that, in order to succeed with the alleged plot to lure the aircraft off course and kill the President of Mozambique, aside from all the previously discussed technical factors that needed to line up, the conspirators would have needed to ensure that the 5 crew members would dispense with normal flying discipline as well as ignore the many warning signs that could have alerted them to their pending peril - particularly the final one. 0 Comments Print Share.

This must have increased the tension for the Captain and crew.At this stage the Captain should have put the early turn, the VOR indicator lights indicating that their station was to their left plus the apparent changing ground speeds together. On 19 October 1986, the Mozambican presidential aircraft, a Tupolev TU 134A-3 was returning from Zambia after the Lusaka Summit to be in time for Ms Graça Machel’s birthday. These facts were also confirmed by a Canadian DFDR expert, Bernard Caiger, to whom the Mozambique authorities gave radar plots and the statement of Captain Marques for independent analysis.

The co-pilot was listening to the news on the radio.

He did not marry either Sorita or Irene.He married Josina Abiatar Muthemba in 1969.
This was a totally incorrect assumption given the Tower was able to communicate with his aircraft and the airport had standby power for the radios and lights in any event.

As can be seen from the CVR record, the disaster could have been averted at a number of key points.21:09:16 the Navigator tells the Captain they have 120 km to go.21:10:48 the Navigator tells the Captain there is 100 km left.

"Setting these selectors was it seems, not a simple process. In terms of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 The first of the South African team of investigators flew directly to Komatipoort, the aerodrome nearest the site and were ferried to the scene by helicopter arriving at about midday on 20"I arrived at the accident site on 21 October."

Roy pointed out.The CVR recorded that there were numerous things the flight crew omitted.

Colonel Frank Borman, the test pilot/astronaut of Apollo 8 fame, Geoffrey Wilkinson, the Chief Inspector of the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch. "The aircraft continued descending but, given that their estimated arrival over the runway threshold had not taken place yet, the Captain was becoming aware something was amiss and instructed the Radio officer to call the tower.19:18:24 The aircraft passed 3000 feet and the radio operator called the tower to report "Maintaining 3000 feet. 9:02 CAT | 17 Oct 2016. This was an indication that things were going awry and was caused by the angle at which the aircraft was now flying relative to the origin of the distance signal.If they were turning towards Maputo as they assumed, the indicator lights would not have been displaying that the chosen VOR station was to the left nor would there have been such a huge difference in the time taken for the previous 20km to be flown and the much longer time for the next 20 km.

The Samora Machel plane crash: Re-examined. File photo / The crashed presidential plane, seen here in a file photo. In order to prepare for his future activities, he left Mozambique and traveled to other African countries from where he received military training.