Hennenman memorial at Turffontein
The date of 12 April will forever cast a long shadow over the South African racing community. It is the date of the Hennenman air disaster in which a United Airlines flight went down outside the small Free State town of Hennenman.
A race meeting scheduled for Bloemfontein a week earlier had been postponed due to rain and rescheduled for 12 April 1988. The racing contingent were originally booked to travel on an SAA flight, but as the airline could not accommodate the booking change, a United Airlines flight was chartered to take them on the short journey from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein and back again.
The day’s racing results reflect a double for Danny Lombard, as well as wins for Johannes ‘Rooies’ Fourie, Warren Baillie, Lawrence Riley, Greg Holme and Bennie de Wet. The Racing Calendar for the meeting contains the entry “No stipes report for this meeting due to tragic circumstances.”
On the return leg from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg, a fuel leak started a fire in the starboard engine, which spread to the fuselage and the plane went down just outside the small Free State town of Hennenman. It is thought that passengers and crew probably lost consciousness in the smoke-filled cabin before the crash, which claimed the lives of everyone on board.
The passenger log included 13 of South Africa’s leading riding lights including 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. The five racing officials included Graham Kent, Dave Bullock, Henry Havergall, Ginger Masterton and Johannes van der Linden. Also on board were two owners, Jacobus Viljoen and Neville Blignaut, trainer Hennie van Wyk, and air crew Jacob Kalt, Harold Whitehead and Jacqueline Henderson.
Aftermath
Later, the logbook of the aged United Airways Dakota revealed that the aircraft had not been properly serviced and maintained, but the subsequent inquiry failed to apportion blame on anyone as United Airways had gone into liquidation in the interim.
In an interview with the Sporting Post, Clyde Basel stated, “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.”
Near miss
Basil Marcus
We spoke to former champion jockey Basil Marcus, who narrowly escaped being on the same plane. Basil remembers, “It is only by the grace of God that I was not on that plane. I used to ride for Cliffie Miller a lot in Bloem in those days, in fact I loved riding there. We always had so much fun doing those things. Travelling to Bloem, PE and Zim was just what we did, you know?”
“I had been away, riding work in Santa Anita in America. I had just got home and as I walked in the door, the phone rang and it was Cliffie, asking me to come for that meeting. Under normal circumstances I would definitely have said yes in which case I would been on that plane, but I had promised my wife that when I came back from America I wouldn’t travel as much, so I turned Cliffie down.”
“As it happened, I actually did go up to Joburg that week. The National Yearling Sales were happening at the same time and we had horses running there on the Saturday (I was riding for Herman snr), so I went up early. My family still thought knowing me I might still take some rides and work my way to Bloem. They phoned me later that night at my hotel and were relieved that I answered. I was honestly exceptionally blessed not to have been on that plane.”
Intriguingly, there is a further racing connection to that plane. Basil continues, “If I remember correctly, and I think this is correct, that is the very same plane I flew down when I won the Met on Model Man. We made a stable for Model Man in that plane and my wife, Pat Lunn and everybody flew down together on the Thursday before the Met. And then Model Man flew back again in the same plane. Just talking about it now really gives me shivers. I’ve got a lot of strong connections to that disaster.”
“It was a very sad day and the same as all disasters when they happen, you lose a lot of very good people along the way,” he reflects. “I used to ride with those guys a lot and was very close to all of them. I went to the first memorial, but then went overseas in 1990. Whenever the anniversary comes around every year, you remember the guys so clearly. It’s easy to forget and that’s why I’m so happy that they have the memorial race day – it just reminds everybody of the talent that did go down in that plane.”
