Greg Holme
The racing industry will honour the memory of those who perished in the Hennenman air disaster at Turffontein today. It is 25 years since the worst tragedy to hit South African horseracing devastated the lives of so many people involved.
Annual Commemoration
The Turffontein raceday is held annually in memory of those who died on Tuesday 12 April 1988 when a United Airways charter flight crashed near the Free State town of Hennenman on its return from a racemeeting in Bloemfontein.
The meeting was due to have been held the previous week, with the racing party booked to travel on a scheduled South African Airways flight.
But when rain forced the postponement of the meeting, SAA couldn’t accommodate a booking change and a plane was specially chartered to transport jockeys and officials to Bloemfontein and back again.
Later, the logbook of the aged United Airways Dakota revealed that it had not been properly serviced and maintained. Fuel leaked and a fire started in the starboard engine, later spreading to the fuselage. The subsequent inquiry failed to pin blame for the disaster on anyone, with United Airways having gone into liquidation in the interim.
Clyde Reflects
Phumelela Executive Clyde Basel, who lost his brother Keith in the tragedy, recalls what happened: “I recall that the plane departed from Bloemfontein Airport at around 19h00. At approximately 19h45 the pilot made contact with the control tower and told them that there was smoke on board the plane. If I remember correctly, the owner of the Hennenman farm where the plane ended up crashing, said that he saw a ball of fire in the sky shortly before the disaster. It is assumed the pilot was overcome by the smoke,” he said.
Basel continued saying that he remembered arriving home that evening about 21h00 after a visit to the Rand Show: “I walked into a teary home, my mother and my aunt were crying whilst praying the rosary. I asked what was wrong and my mom said that they can’t find Keith’s plane, it’s gone missing from the radar”.
Of course I thought nothing of it at the time and suggested that they do not worry as I was sure it was a mistake. “At this stage my late father was at the Jan Smuts airport trying to find answers. He returned at about 22H30 with no further information. The de Wet family called our home, as well as some other worrying family members awaiting the arrival of their loved ones, but no one could give any information.
“Eventually at about midnight, when we were all sitting watching TV in anticipation, it came up on what was then known as the teledata. You may recall that after SABC were done broadcasting, they switched over to teledata which gave almost text type updates of information.
“The headlines read something about NO SURVIVERS IN DAKOTA CRASH. Well, you can just imagine what happened thereafter,” he recalled sadly.
Talent Pool
“When getting to the bottom of what caused the crash, it seemed to be due to negligence. Despite a judge ruling that this was an act of God, none of the families could accept this. In fact it was rather obvious that this plane should never have been allowed to fly.
“It was discovered that the right fuel pump was withered away, which resulted in a fuel leakage that may have instigated the crash. The log book also showed that the aircraft was well overdue a service (it wasn’t serviced for thousands of flying hours), and it also became apparent that the company, United Air, who owned the aircraft was insolvent. This was the same plane that was used in the movie “The Wild Geese” in 1941,” he said.
Basel added that many of the riders were under the age of 22, some of them married with young children. He said that there was an enormous pool of talent that the industry lost overnight. Rooies Fourie was the Transvaal Champion Jockey at the time.
“Now 25 years on, we once again honour those who lost their lives whilst on duty. I know the few families that still attend this race meeting appreciate the fact that Phumelela and The Racing Association remember their loved ones on this day.”
Tribute
Twenty-four people died in the tragedy.
Jockeys: Keith Basel, Lawrence Riley, Johannes “Rooies” Fourie, Warren Baillie, Bennie de Wet, Greg Holme, Douglas Roper, Danny Lombard, John McMurtry, Mark Nel, Michael Coetzee, Simon Rahilly and Gordon Sterley.
Officials: Graham Kent, Dave Bullock, Henry Havergall, Ginger Masterton and Johannes van der Linden
Owners: Jacobus Viljoen and Neville Blignaut
Trainer: Hennie van Wyk
Air Crew: Jacob Kalt, Harold Whitehead and Jacqueline Henderson.
On Sunday 14 April the R150 000 Listed Spook Express Handicap will be run over 2600m and the R115 000 Hennenman Memorial Pinnacle Stakes is the supporting feature, run over the same trip Families of the deceased who would like to attend the race meeting are asked to contact Angie at the RA on Tel: 011 683 3220.
