Aviation sleuth claims he can finally explain 1967 disaster

The riddle of the Rietbok stirs anew

One evening in October 2021, a man swathed in a scarf, hoodie, mask and dark glasses entered the offices of The Herald newspaper in Gqeberha and dropped a parcel at the reception desk addressed to Wouter Botes. He asked if it could be delivered to the night editor. The night editor, John Harvey, was requested to see to it that Botes received the parcel unopened.

Which is what happened. Allegedly, it contained an account of the communications between the captain of the doomed SAA flight 406 and the airport control towers in Gqeberha — then still known as Port Elizabeth — and East London. Known as the Rietbok, the plane, carrying 20 passengers and five crew from Port Elizabeth to East London, crashed into the sea off Kayser’s Beach about 20km south of its destination on March 13 1967.

Botes, an aircraft crash investigator, commercial pilot and plane-wreck hunter, had already undertaken extensive investigations into the fate of the Rietbok. Until the mystery man showed up at The Herald, Botes lacked vital information; but he now believes he has the final pieces of the puzzle.

Botes believes the official report — by a commission headed by war hero and retired judge Cecil Margo, which was set up immediately after the disaster — lacked a number of important details and that some of its conclusions were incorrect. The official report, compiled with the help of aviation experts, mathematicians who analysed angles and speeds, witnesses and others, was comprehensive but relied on technology now more than 50 years old.

The commission’s conclusion was that the aircraft was structurally sound and airworthy, but the pilot Gordon “Lippy” Lipawsky, 48, in all probability suffered a heart attack or stroke and collapsed over the control panel, obstructing the first officer’s access to the controls. The inquiry said it could not rule out “spatial disorientation” but this was unlikely.

Botes, on the other hand, says information about a simple but vital aspect of the landing procedure — the altimeter reading — was overlooked. He believes this is what brought the plane down. No instruction was given to the cockpit crew from the East London control tower and neither did the captain adjust the altimeter to the correct local reading. He therefore had no idea at what height he was at the time of the crash. This throws a new light on the disaster, and Botes thinks his findings might help some of the surviving relatives of the dead get closure, and could undermine the conspiracy theories around the crash.

When Lipawsky, a former World War 2 pilot, took off from Port Elizabeth in the Vickers Viscount his destination in East London was shrouded in heavy rain. He was approaching from the seaward side in the vicinity of Kayser’s Beach, flying the plane on instruments in near darkness. He believed he was at 2,000ft (6,000m). At 7.09pm he radioed: “At 2,000ft and the coastline is in sight.” One minute and eight seconds later the Viscount crashed into the sea with the loss of all on board.

At the time the National Party government was becoming increasingly aggressive against those who opposed it and had just banned the ANC and PAC.

Among the passengers were two people perceived to be opponents of the government — a prominent Afrikaner, JP Bruwer, and an American woman, Audrey Rosenthal, who was on a mission for the UK-based anti-apartheid International Defence and Aid Fund. This gave rise to suspicions that the crash was a carefully planned assassination. But, says Botes, it was nothing of the sort. Like everyone else on board, they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lipawsky, a highly experienced and well-regarded pilot with a total flying time of 12,345 hours, of which 3,231 were on Viscounts, had recently been treated for a cardiovascular disorder. However, he had been declared fit for duty.

Lipawsky’s day began badly. His work schedule was routine — a flight to Port Elizabeth via Bloemfontein and East London and back to Johannesburg. After take-off at the then Jan Smuts Airport, he discovered the nose wheel of the aircraft would not retract, forcing him to return to the airport, where it was repaired.

The weather at East London on the outward run was poor. Drizzle and heavy clouds over the city. To make matters worse, the plane suffered a bird strike on take-off but continued to Port Elizabeth where it was declared airworthy. In Port Elizabeth, Lipawsky, cautious as ever, checked on the weather in East London and concluded that the chances of landing there on the return run were slim. Accordingly, he told the two passengers who were scheduled to disembark there of this possibility. One decided not to fly, but the other took his chances.

Being the meticulous pilot he was, the captain performed all the necessary checks en route to East London. But the city’s airport has a reputation for “come and go” weather conditions, and it seems Lipawsky decided to prepare for an approach.

Three witnesses testified later that the aircraft was descending in a natural way but at just after 7.10pm all three heard the aircraft crash into the ocean.

Word soon reached the maritime authorities in East London and no time was lost. Cinemas screened a hurried note asking crew members of the minesweepers SAS Johannesburg and SAS Mosselbaai to report to the vessels immediately. Members of the East London naval voluntary reserve were told to report to the harbour. Medical staff were put on standby and within a short time a flotilla of naval personnel and air support was on its way to Kayser’s Beach.

No survivors were found. It was established that the main body of the plane was lying in 55m-65m of water about 2.5km offshore. Extensive salvage operations were later attempted but were hindered by murky water and dangerous seas. Bits of floating debris were recovered. It is believed several bodies were sighted by one of the naval vessels but could not be recovered because of the turbulent seas and were soon lost to view in the darkness and rain. The air-sea search continued for a few days until it was called off due to the high costs.

Immediately after Lipawsky made a left turn at Christmas Rock to line up with East London’s runway 10, the aircraft hit the water. According to Botes, Lipawsky, because of the incorrect altimeter setting and poor visibility, had no idea at what height he was flying.

The aircraft’s left wing clipped the sea on the turn and the aircraft somersaulted, causing the nose-cone to break off and allowing seawater to quickly flood the fuselage.

Botes is now fundraising to put together a team to salvage parts of the wreckage. He says it will be a mammoth task given the capricious nature of the tides in the crash area, but he hopes it can happen within the next three months.

He intends to recover just two pieces of wreckage — one for the East London Museum and the other for the SAA Museum in Gauteng. The remainder, he says, will remain under the sea as a graveyard and as a mark of respect for those who perished.

Out of the blue, a mystery man has produced ‘evidence’ that an air crash sleuth thinks throws new light on the 1967 plane crash, writes Charles Beningfield

Botes is fundraising to put together a team to salvage parts of the wreckage