Modern tech solving mystery of South African plane missing for 57 years

Pilot and aviation researcher Wouter Botes believes human error rather than foul play is to blame for the tragic SAS Rietbok plane crash in 1967.

High-resolution 3D images have uncovered the mystery of the plane’s ocean gravesite, showing one of the aircraft’s wheels and its undercarriage.

Botes captured the images using a state-of-the-art scanner, usually used for finding fish, which revealed a metallic object at a depth of roughly 65 metres at the location where Rietbok is said to lie.

Botes told the Sunday Times that the evidence shows human error caused the accident. The pilot was flying too low to avoid storm clouds. He used a combination of altitude and voice recording data to plot the plane’s likely trajectory.

He says he believes the plane’s wing touched the water when the pilot turned left on its approach to East London.

A passenger on the flight who disembarked in Port Elizabeth, who is also a pilot, said he got a fright when the plane made a similar manoeuvre on its approach to the airport due to how low it came in under the clouds.

Botes said a salvage mission will be largely weather-dependent and is not guaranteed to occur.

The flight — South African Airways flight 406 — crashed into the sea on 13 March 1967.

The scheduled commercial flight carried five crew and 20 passengers, including well-known US anti-apartheid activist Audrey Rosenthal and several prominent South African business people.

It was initially speculated that the pilot had suffered a heart attack on the approach to East London.

However, some believed the cause of the crash was nefarious, as Rosenthal was reportedly under surveillance before the incident.

The pilot knew that he might have to bypass a landing in East London due to poor weather conditions and took on more fuel than usual when preparing for the flight.

Flight 406 took off from Port Elizabeth at 16:41 GMT, and the pilot received and acknowledged a weather report for East London given at 16:58 GMT.

Shortly afterwards, he requested clearance to descend from around 9,000 feet, which was granted.

Air traffic control requested that the pilot radio in when passing 4,500 feet. He was recorded confirming the flight’s descent through 4,000 feet at 17:06 GMT.

At the time, the flight was seaward of the coastline and roughly 32km away from landing. Air traffic control informed the pilot that he could not use runway 10 due to poor visibility.

At around 17:00 GMT, the pilot radioed to say the plane was at 2,000 feet and that he had the coast in sight. The plane was not heard from again after that communication.

There were witnesses to the crash, including a farmer who claimed to have seen it from his property above Kayser’s Beach.