New M-Net Local Documentary Helderberg Explores SA’s Worst-Ever Commercial Aviation Disaster

Just after midnight on 28 November 1987, Mauritian air traffic control lost contact with South African Airways Flight SA 295, shortly after it had started its approach to the island’s Plaisance Airport, en route from Taipei to Johannesburg. After being unable to reach the plane again, an emergency was declared – but South Africa’s worst-ever commercial aviation disaster had already taken place.

Almost four decades later, mystery still surrounds the exact cause of the fire which saw the Boeing 747, named ‘Helderberg’, to impact the Indian Ocean and claim the lives of all 159 passengers and crew aboard. M-Net’s latest documentary series, Helderberg, sets out to examine the events of the crash, and the 37 years that followed it, from Thursday 15 May at 8pm.

Investigations began in the late 80’s with retrieving the aircraft’s wreckage from a greater depth than the Titanic had sunk to, an international investigation and a local inquiry, then continued into the 90’s with private investigations and a special hearing at the TRC. In the 2000’s, multiple claims of new information, death bed confessions and modern theories for the crash continue to cast an air of uncertainty on the fate of SA295: was it simply an accident, or an act of treachery?

Over the course of three episodes, Helderberg outlines the incident and delves deeper into the back story, with insights from first hand witnesses and participants in the investigation including former Department of Civil Aviation Lead Investigator Rennie van Zyl, forensic scientist Dr David Klatzow, authors Mark D Young and Steven Webb, former SAA staff, and family of the victims – all still in search of the truth.

The three-part documentary Helderberg is produced by Relish Media and IdeaCandy and will be broadcast on M-Net (DStv Channel 101) from 15 May at 8pm and will also be available on DStv Catch Up and DStv Stream. For more, visit the M-Net Website and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.