on a pitch black night miles above the Indian Ocean a fire rages on board a fully loaded Boeing 747 140 terrified passengers rushed to the front of the cabin in a desperate bid to escape the suffocating smoke the pilots put the aircraft into a terrifying dive desperately fighting to get their aircraft on the ground will they be able to make it to a small island in the middle of the ocean or will the Flames consume their chances this is the horrifying story of South African Airways flight 295 and it's a story with a puzzling twist foreign [Music] November 27 1987 140 passengers and 19 crew boarded a South African Airways Boeing 747 at Taipei in Taiwan they were Bound for Johannesburg in South Africa with a stopover in Mauritius this was a long journey with the flight time to Mauritius being 10 hours to this day the real story of flight 295 is still shrouded in mystery and conspiracy key people disagree about what happened on board the plane as it made its way over the southern Indian Ocean and that's because from the very beginning this was not an ordinary flight in this video we're going to try to piece together what happened flight 295 using three key jigsaw pieces The Story begins in Taipei as the passengers boarded and as cargo was loaded onto the aircraft South African Airways used a version of the 747 known as the combi as it combined both passengers and cargo on the same deck the front two thirds of the massive plane were used to carry passengers while the rear third was used for cargo the majority of the passengers were South Africans returning home though there were also many Japanese and Taiwanese Nationals on board as well as some passengers from Europe and Australia open the cockpit was a highly experienced crew the captain was David ice a 49 year old former Air Force pilot with nearly 14 000 hours of flying experience in a matter of hours he would be face to face with one of his worst nightmares something he had been quietly concerned about for years sitting to his right his 36 year old first officer David Hamilton had over 7 000 hours total flying experience and like the captain about 4 000 of these were on the 747. behind the two pilots was 45 year old fight engineer Giuseppe belagarda he too had thousands of hours flying to 747. on this night he would be the first to discover the true nature of the emergency given the length of this flight there were two more fight crew in the cockpit ready to take over during the fight's long cruise over the ocean these were 37 year old relief pilot Jeffrey virtual and 34 year old fight engineer Alan George Daniel all appeared normal as the crew writed their massive aircraft for a departure for what was one of the longest routes in the airline's Network but if some accounts of this incident are to be believed something has already gone seriously wrong we'll return to what this might be in a moment at a quarter past 10 that night the 747 was pushed back from the gate at Taipei the 140 passengers settled in for the long journey while the pilots began readying their aircraft for takeoff the route to Mauritius would be an unusual one in the 1980s South Africa was an international pariah it was ruled by an extremist racist government and this meant that dozens of countries had banned it from flying in their airspace flights coming from Europe had to circumnavigate the entire African continent to get to South Africa and tonight Fight 295 would be no different it would first have to fly south over the South China Sea avoiding Southeast Asian airspace before skirting along the Vietnamese coast and then finally turning Southwest to head towards Mauritius these restrictions would form a crucial part of one of the scenarios which we'll explore shortly if you're not a fan of restrictions then you'll need to get atlas VPN Atlas VPN allows you to unlock your favorite movies and TV shows from all around the world by bypassing National restrictions so if you're abroad in a country like China 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the video at 25 minutes past 10 local time flight 295 rocketed down the runway at Taipei and lifted off into the pitch black sky the captain turned the plane South and began the long journey towards Mauritius [Music] about half an hour after takeoff the fight reached its initial cruising altitude high above the South China Sea the pilots continued South along the planned route making routine position reports to air traffic controllers at Hong Kong Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur so far everything was going to plan [Music] about 90 minutes after takeoff the pilots also made a routine call to a radio station operated by South African Airways all the way over in Johannesburg this station was known as Zur z-u-r and it was manned 24 7 by a radio operator employed by South African Airways the purpose of Zur was to enable the airline to keep track of its Fleet of aircraft around the world and to deal with any problems as they arose it was considered an important service by the airline at a time when the country's political situation made it very difficult to operate internationally in fact South African Airways was one of only two airlines in the world which had such a service the other being British Airways [Music] but on this night something unusual would happen at sir highly unusual in fact this something would pave the way for a frighteningly Sinister interpretation of events which we're now about to see unfold as the pilots chatted in the cockpit a bar service went through the passenger cabin this was followed shortly after by a dinner service this is typically how meals are served on long-haul flights departing late in the evening dinner and drinks are served and then the passengers sleep until the plane reaches its destination naturally enough the pilots didn't get to enjoy the full range of what the drink service had to offer but when the dinner service came around they were served the food from the Fresca's cabin however after so many years of the same meals the food had lost its appeal and the pilots complained about it to each other as they ate we know this discussion about dinner took place because the cockpit voice recorder contains several minutes of it but if you've watched a few of these videos you know that the cop would voice recorder only records the final 30 minutes of the flight and this is where the first peculiarity of this flight emerges flight 295 does not crash in the next 30 minutes in fact it will spend the next eight hours traversing the southern Indian Ocean why then is there a discussion about dinner on the cockpit voice recorder dinner which took place near the beginning of the flight hours before the plane would end up declaring an emergency to Mauritius Air Traffic Control this is where the first of those three puzzle pieces I mentioned earlier comes in let's listen to the audio from the cockpit voice recorder this reveals the very moment when the quiet calm of the cockpit is disrupted by the first sign of trouble foreign [Laughter] [Laughter] right now don't be fooled by the calm and the Pilot's voices they were now facing the worst kind of emergency an aircraft can face an in-flight fire if you've seen my video on Swiss Air flight 111 you know how quickly fire can consume an aircraft immediately the pilots of flight 295 got to work tearing through checklists and trying to determine the nature and source of the fire and extinguish it foreign within seconds the extent of the fire was becoming apparent those popping circuit breakers the fight engineer mentioned were popping because the fire was burning through the electrical wires they were connected to this wasn't just some cigarette smoke triggering the smoke alarm this was fast becoming an Inferno the Pilot's instruments indicated that the fire had taken hold in the main deck cargo area just behind the passengers they had to extinguish it and fast if they had any chance of making it down alive they had to act now but after tripping dozens of circuit breakers the fire's next victim was none other than the wires connected to the cockpit voice recorder itself foreign [Music] this was the last sound recorded by the carpet voice recorder as the fire burned through the wiring supplying it with power as far as our investigation is concerned we are now left in the dark and in this Darkness lie two possible scenarios two beacons of light where was fight 295 when the cockpit voice recorder blinked out of existence was it here or was it here to help us answer that question we need to take a look at the second of the three puzzle pieces what you're about to hear is the recording of the conversation between Captain ice and an air traffic controller at Mauritius this is separate from the recording we just heard which was internal audio from the cockpit this audio is a tape recording from the control tower at Mauritius foreign uh do you request a full emergency please a full emergency thank you the pilots were now about 200 miles from Mauritius descending rapidly to 14 000 feet now this audio should settle it surely it shows the plane had made it all the way across the ocean to Mauritius before the fire started so what must have happened is that the cockpit voice recorder recorded the outbreak of the fire about 200 miles from Mauritius but then the fire caught off the power supply to the recorder and shortly after the pilots began descending and contacted Air Traffic Control it all fits except there's still that issue of the discussion about dinner Pilots did not eat dinner just before beginning their descent and yet it appears that the fire began just as the pilots were eating their dinner so we're left with two possibilities the dinner conversation has the fire starting here but the air traffic control recording puts the fire here which could it be foreign it probably seems fairly obvious at this point that the fire must have broken out close to Mauritius the pilots declared an emergency to air traffic controllers there after all and not to controllers in Thailand or Malaysia Captain ice and his crew were well aware that an onboard fire required them to divert immediately to the nearest possible Airport normally once a fire begins Pilots have less than 20 minutes to land their plane before it is entirely consumed by flames so it stands to reason that the fire occurred close to Mauritius because that's where the pilots attempted to land if the fire had broken out while the plane was here close to Asia then the plane would have attempted to divert to somewhere in Thailand or Malaysia or at least that's how the picture looks if we leave out the third and final jigsaw piece [Music] near the start of this video I mentioned the radio Outpost called Zur operated by South African Airways in Johannesburg it's manned 24 hours a day and it stays in regular contact with all of the airline's aircraft around the world and thankfully these conversations are recorded on tape the tape recorders run all day picking up everything said between the station and the pilots perhaps we can use this tape as a way of squaring off these inconsistencies we've found so far maybe it will tell us for sure where the plane was when the pilots first became aware of a fire but here's the problem the tape for this night has disappeared the one from the night before exists stored safely in Zur and the one from the night after exists too but the tape which covers the critical period during which flight 295 would have been in contact with sir has vanished why might this crucial piece of evidence have disappeared is it just an unfortunate coincidence or is there something on that tape that South African Airways doesn't want the world to hear just like in a jigsaw when a piece is missing we can still see its shape in this space it leaves behind the very absence of the zoo tape is itself a piece of evidence and that evidence points us to a disturbing scenario one which involves not one fire but two consider the following in 1987 South Africa was engaged in a violent war against its next door neighbor Angola to fight this war it needed massive supplies of weaponry and equipment but it had a major problem South Africa was under an arms embargo at the time which made it exceedingly difficult for the military to get its hands on the weapons and equipment it needed as a result the country's government did the unthinkable it began to use commercial passenger Jets to transport weapons of war in order to fuel its military operations in Angola specifically it contracted armscore and Military Arms manufacturer to supply it with missiles chemicals and other arms which it loaded onboard passenger aircraft operated by South African Airways foreign officials at the airline had been employed by armscore and were all too happy to use the airline to transport these Goods many pilots who flew for South African Airways were aware that this was taking place and were uncomfortable with the practice in fact in interviews in the Years following flight 295 Captain Ice's own wife had recalled that on numerous occasions her husband had expressed his concerns about being forced to sign off on cargo which he felt was unsafe to carry importantly South African Airways was in serious breach of international law for doing this if it was found to be carrying weapons of war onboard passenger aircraft the airline would be done for South Africa would be shut off from the rest of the world with this established let's go back to that third puzzle piece the missing xertape see where it fits let's play out a scenario which fits the available evidence it's the middle of the night and South African Airways flight 295 cruises high above the South China Sea as the pilots chat amongst themselves an alarm sounds in the cockpit in the cargo compartment just behind the passengers smoke has started billowing out from one of the pallets the pilots immediately begin grappling with the problem running through the checklists to put the fire out the captain knows that this fire could have been started by Weaponry which was illegally smuggled on board by South African Airways he also knows that if he declares an emergency to air traffic control and manages to make it down to a nearby airport his plane will be inspected upon Landing and he knows that if this inspection turns up illegally carried weapons the airline is done for South Africa would lose its National Airline and he would lose his job as the pilots go through the checklist and attempt to extinguish the blaze Captain eyes has a decision to make if he can put the fire out should he continue to Mauritius or land immediately he radio Zur in Johannesburg and asks the airline for guidance the radio operator consults with senior officials at the airline who ordered the captain to extinguish the fire and continue to Mauritius they know that if flight 295 declares an emergency and lands now it's game over for the airline in this scenario the pilots managed to extinguish the Blaze and then continue on to Mauritius where a few hours later the fire reignites and spells disaster let's say for a moment that this scenario is what took place surely in those crucial moments when the fire first broke out Captain isa's desire to save his own life and those of his passengers would weigh more heavily on his mind than any abstract political or career considerations would he really risk his own life and the lives of over 100 people just to save his job and his country's Airline without the zore tapes we're left in the dark as to what exactly went on this night the radio operator on duty that night has maintained to this day that after some routine communication shortly after the flight left Taipei he remained out of contact with the flight for the rest of its duration however according to others it would have been very unusual for a flight to stay out of contact for such a long period of time and that's why the missing zore tapes are so important without them we can't know whether flight 295 received orders to put the fire out and continue the Journey Only to have the fire reignite as it neared Mauritius this time taking the plane down what we do know is that there was a fire on board as the flight neared Mauritius in the cargo compartment just behind the passengers the front right pallet was engulfed in flames as the pilots put the aircraft in a steep descent the passengers rushed to the front of the plane to escape the Heat and smoke from the Raging Inferno behind them a flight attendant rushed to the cargo compartment to extinguish the blaze but dropped their fire extinguisher without ever discharging it as the fire was too big to tame at this point the pilots turned off the recirculation funds in an effort to prevent the spread of toxic smoke and fumes throughout the carbon but given the intensity of the fire and the sheer amount of smoke it produced stopping the recirculating fans had almost no effect on the amount of smoke entering the carbon a number of passengers died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning as the smoke spread throughout the plane as each tekless item failed to contain the spread of the fire it began to burn through wiring in the aircraft's ceiling disabling the Pilot's instruments one by one their eyes and ears on their plane were failing as they desperately tried to coordinate their arrival with Mauritius Air Traffic Control they were still more than 150 miles from the airport and time was running out as the awkward smoke built up inside the cabin and the cockpit the pilots reached a point in the fire and smoke checklist which called for them to do something Unthinkable in a passenger aircraft it called for them to open the door mid-flight with the plane still thousands of feet above the water a flight attendant rushed to the front cabin door and heaved it open nothing but a black abyss waited outside accompanied by howling Winds of almost 400 kilometers per hour whatever relief from the smoke this brought the passengers it did nothing to stop the fire which continued to rage on now burning through critical aircraft systems the noise in the carbon was tremendous as the air rushed through it and the pilots had to shout to hear each other [Music] at night time and with their instruments failing it became increasingly difficult to tell what was going on [Music] the pilots fought on for as long as they could but it was a losing battle the fire had now begun to weaken the structure of the aircraft itself seven minutes past four in the morning local time I still over 100 miles from the airport flight 295 broke apart in midair the aircraft impacted the water in three pieces and sank to the depths of the ocean fourteen thousand feet onto the surface there were no survivors so what caused the fire what was being carried in the front right pallet in the cargo compartment the official investigation examined parts of the wreckage which were dredged up from the bottom of the ocean however they were unable to determine the cause of the fire experts were able to tell that the fire burned at well over 1000 degrees Celsius which suggests that highly combustible materials must have been on board so if the physical evidence itself is inconclusive what other evidence do we have to go on what about the cargo manifest for the flight generated in Taipei well it was shredded shortly after the accident nonetheless another version of it appeared over the course of the investigation and it listed an assignment of computer components as being in the front right palette where the fire started these components included lithium batteries which are known to be flammable this would not be the first or the last time that exploding batteries down the passenger jet but the kinds of batteries carried on this flight were taught by some investigators to be too small to cause such a fire and regardless of that they were not known to spontaneously combust some fire experts who examined the wreckage concluded that the intensity of the blaze was such that the ignition Source must have had its own oxygen supply nothing on the cargo manifest fit this bill but again it wouldn't be the first time the South African Airways had smuggled dangerous goods on board their aircraft without listing them on the Manifest and for this reason and the others that I've mentioned in this video conspiracy theories about the true contents of the cargo compartment abound to this day if you found this video thought provoking hit the like button it really helps out the channel I'm also curious to hear your thoughts about what might have happened this flight let me know your own theories in the comment section I want to say a special thanks to the patreon and YouTube members for making it possible for my team and I to keep producing these in-depth videos if you'd like to help us make more you can support Green Dot Aviation on patreon I've put the link here on screen I'd especially like to thank Joey Steve Wilcox Simon Burbridge mat o'callaghan and Pete familton for their very generous support I hope you enjoyed this one and I'll see you soon for the next episode