OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 2.00pm.
FRESH claims have been made that weapons – but no “atom” bomb – as well as an Amscor “agent” were aboard the ill-fated Helderberg.
Two Johannesburg newspapers carried further “revelations” about the mysterious downing of the SAA flight in November 1987 that killed all 159 on board.
Well-known businessman Thomas Osler, who apparently had close ties with Armscor and was allegedly an Armscor agent, was booked on the flight as chief executive of the Industrial Development Corporation, Beeld reported on Wednesday.
The Star reported that a South African Airways pilot told the 1998 in-camera Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing into the Helderberg disaster that the airline used passenger planes to transport military equipment.
Former truth commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza, who presided over the TRC hearing, confirmed that the pilot told the TRC of at least one incident in 1985 when rockets and rocket launchers were loaded into the cargo hold of his plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Johannesburg. SAA refused to confirm or deny the TRC evidence, the paper said.
This follows the publication on Tuesday of transcripts of an alleged conversation between Helderberg pilot Dawie Uys tells his co-pilot that “Boy George” – an apparent reference to a nuclear bomb – was aboard the aircraft. The transcripts have been greeted with widespread scepticism.
“If there had been a nuclear explosion, we would all know about it. Nuclear bombs don’t burn, they explode, yet we know from the forensic evidence that the Helderberg crashed because of a fire on board,” Civil Aviation Authority chief Trevor Abrahams told The Star.
He has also dismissed these new transcripts, saying the master copy of the original tape revealed only “noise”.
During the TRC hearing, Beeld reports, “pertinent questions” about Osler’s relationship with Armscor and the possibility that he acted as an agent for Armscor were raised.
Beeld said it has information that Osler visited China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan in the days before he returned to South Africa on board the Helderberg.
On the morning of the Helderberg’s departure from Taiwan, Osler was in Singapore. He was transported back to Taiwan by a Taiwanese military aircraft.
Meanwhile, Ntsebeza told The Star the TRC hearing gathered enough evidence for a fresh investigation to be launched.
“There are so many unanswered questions about the crash and the Margo commission that investigated it. In our final report we recommend that the government reopen the inquiry,” said Ntsebeza.
Transport Minister Dullah Omar was quoted as saying if fresh evidence into the cause of the Helderberg crash was discovered the inquiry would be reopened, a repeat of what he said after the TRC hearing.