On 19 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.
Aircraft, flight crew and itinerary
All times in this article are local (UTC+2).
The aircraft involved, manufactured by Tupolev on 19 August 1980, was a Tupolev Tu-134A-3, registered as C9-CAA, with serial number 63457. It had accumulated about 1,105 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.
In command was 48-year-old Captain Yuri Viktorovich Novodran. In total, he had logged 13,056 hours of flying time, 7,523 of which were logged on the Tu-134. His co-pilot was 29-year-old First Officer Igor Petrovich Kartamyshev. In total, he had logged 3,790 hours of flying time, 2,380 of which were logged on the Tu-134. The flight engineer was 37-year-old Vladimir B. Novoselov, logging all 6,203 of his total flight hours on the Tu-134. The navigator was 48-year-old Oleg Nikolaevich Kudryashov with 12,942 hours of flying time, 6,074 of which on the Tu-134 and the radio operator was 39-year-old Anatoly Shulipov, having logged 14,370 hours of flying time, of which 1,450 logged on the Tu-134.
All of the mentioned 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.
On the morning of 19 October, Machel boarded the flight at Maputo, and, after a refuelling stop in Lusaka, Zambia, arrived at Mbala, Zambia at 11:00. After the meeting with Kaunda and Dos Santos, Machel and his party re-boarded the aircraft and departed Mbala at 18:38 for a non-stop return to Maputo. The weather forecast for the flight was favourable, with an estimated time of arrival of 21:25.
At 20:46, 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 21:02, 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.
Over the next eight minutes, the aircraft maintained its required track toward Maputo with minor lateral deviations. Then, at 21:10, the aircraft turned away from Maputo to the right, lasting almost one minute in duration resulting in a heading change from 184° to 221°. At this time, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recorded the navigator stating the distance remaining to Maputo as 100 kilometres (62 mi; 54 nmi), then a comment from the captain about the turn, and the navigator's response that the "VOR indicates that way".
At around 21:15, the navigator stated that the distance to Maputo was 60 kilometres (37 mi; 32 nmi). Over the next few minutes, there were several comments from the crew indicating that they believed the navigational aids at Maputo were unavailable. The captain then stated that "there is no Maputo" and "electrical power is off, chaps!", while the navigator reported that the instrument landing system (ILS) and distance measuring equipment (DME) were switched off and that the non-directional beacons (NDBs) were not working.
Shortly after 21:18, the aircraft reached 910 metres (3,000 ft) in its descent, and the crew informed the Maputo controller that they were maintaining that altitude. However, the flight continued to descend. The Maputo controller granted clearance for an ILS approach to runway 23, but after the flight crew reported the ILS out of service, the controller changed the clearance to a visual approach to runway 05. During this time, the navigator stated the distance to Maputo as 25–30 km (16–19 mi; 13–16 nmi); the captain remarked that something was wrong and the co-pilot said that the runway was not lit.
The crew radioed the Maputo controller and asked him to "check your runway lights". Around 21:21, the navigator stated the range to Maputo as 18–20 km (11–12 mi; 9.7–10.8 nmi), and the flight repeated its request to Maputo to check runway lights. Upon reaching an altitude of 796 metres (2,611 ft) AGL, the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) sounded and remained on and, although the captain cursed, the descent continued.
During the last 22 seconds of the flight, the crew twice more radioed Maputo about the runway lights, affirming that they were not in sight, which was eventually acknowledged by the Maputo controller. Meanwhile, the captain stated "cloudy, cloudy, cloudy" and the navigator exclaimed "no, no, there's nowhere to go, there's no NDBs, nothing!". The captain then added "Neither NDBs, nor ILS!", which were the last words recorded on the CVR. The aircraft first impacted terrain at 21:21:39, approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi; 35 nmi) west of Maputo in a hilly region at an elevation of 666 metres (2,185 ft). At the time of the accident, it was a very dark night, a few minutes before moonrise. The last weather report passed to the aircraft indicated 10 kilometres (5.4 nmi; 6.2 mi) of visibility with 3/8 cloud cover at 550 metres (1,800 ft).
After being unable to contact the flight on the radio, the Maputo controller alerted authorities and the Mozambican military units prepared for search and rescue. Since the last radio communication with the aircraft had been four minutes before its estimated time of arrival, the initial search area was defined around Maputo. Throughout the rest of the night and early morning, many helictopers were out to search for the missing flight, and, in addition, a marine search of Maputo Bay was carried out, all without success.
The actual accident site was in a remote, inaccessible corner of South Africa, approximately 150 metres (500 ft) from the Mozambican border. The left wing hit a tree and the aircraft broke up before sliding down a hill, distributing the wreckage over a debris field 846 metres (2,776 ft) in length. A police officer was alerted at approximately 23:00 by a villager from Mbuzini, and the first responder to the scene was a member of the Komatipoort police station who arrived at 23:40. The first medical personnel reached the site at 01:00. Shortly after 04:00, a helicopter and medical crew from the South African Air Force Base Hoedspruit arrived and evacuated the survivors to Nelspruit hospital.
Of the five members of the flight crew, only the flight engineer survived. All four Mozambican cabin crew were killed, as were 26 of the 35 passengers. According to the autopsy conducted by a South African pathologist, Machel died instantly. Besides Machel, the dead included Marxist scholar and diplomat Aquino de Bragança, Machel's possible successor Fernando Honwana, press secretary Muradali Mamadhussein, photo-journalist Daniel Maquinasse, and transport minister Alcantara Santos. One survivor died 2+1⁄2 months after the crash from his injuries.