So these are plane crashes from around the world, but it's only for the countries that had a true crime case, if you don't see a plane crash in here, check my True crime from around the world book.
Warning, this book contains plane crashes and the a...
This plane crash takes us to the South African country of South Africa, which is located next to the following countries: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Mozambique and Lesotho.
WARNINGS OF A PLANE CRASH
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Pictured above is the accident aircraft.
On the 19th of October 1986, a Tupolev Tu-134 jetliner with a Soviet crew carrying President Samora Machel and 43 others from Mbala, Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo crashed at Mbuzini, South Africa. Nine passengers and one crew member survived the crash, but President Machel and 33 others died, including several ministers and senior officials of the Mozambican government.
A board of inquiry blamed the captain for failing to react to the Ground Proximity Warning System. Another theory was that the crew had set the aircraft's VOR receivers to the wrong frequency, causing them to receive signals from a different airport, or even that a false beacon had been used to lure the crew off course. While there was widespread suspicion in other nations that South Africa, which was hostile towards Machel's government at the time, was involved in the incident, no conclusive evidence was ever presented to support that allegation.
The aeroplane being used to transport Machel that day, registration C9-CAA (Charlie 9- Charlie Alpha Alpha), was manufactured by Tupolev in 1980 according to specifications for Mozambique. It had accumulated about 1,100 flying hours since the first flight, and had undergone its last major inspection in August 1984 in the Soviet Union. Service records indicated that it had been properly maintained, and data recovered from the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) showed the aircraft and all its systems were operating normally.
The flight crew of five consisted of captain Yuri Viktorovich Novodran (48), co-pilot Igor Petrovich Kartamyshev (29), flight engineer Vladimir B. Novoselov (37), navigator Oleg Nikolaevich Kudryashov (48), and radio operator Anatoly Shulipov (39), all of whom were Soviet state employees operating the aircraft for the Mozambican government. They were well experienced in both day and night flying in Mozambique and in landings at Maputo airport (IATA: MPM, ICAO: FQMA).
On the morning of the 19th of October, Machel boarded the aeroplane at Maputo, and after a refuelling stop in Lusaka, Zambia arrived at Mbala at 11:00am. After the meeting with Kaunda and Dos Santos, Machel and his party re-boarded the aircraft and departed Mbala at 18:38pm for a non-stop return to Maputo. The weather forecast for the flight was favourable, with an estimated time of arrival of 21:25pm.
At 20:46pm, the flight made its first radio contact with Maputo Air Traffic Control (ATC), reporting its position and that it was continuing towards the Maputo VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) navigation beacon while maintaining an altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 m). At 21:02pm the crew radioed that they were ready to begin descent, and were instructed by Maputo air traffic control to report reaching 3,000 feet (910 m) or when the runway lights were in sight, they began their descent for an ILS approach to runway 23.
