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Air Rhodesia Flight 825

Air Rhodesia Flight 825
A white and blue aeroplane on a runway, surrounded by tankers of fuel and other equipment. The tail bears a stylised red Zimbabwe Bird, and the words "AIR RHODESIA" are painted above the windows of the cabin. Towards the rear are painted the letters "VP-YNC", with the green and white Rhodesian flag rendered above.
A Viscount of Air Rhodesia, similar to the Hunyani
Shootdown
Date3 September 1978
SummaryAirliner shootdown
SiteJust west of Karoi, Rhodesia[n 1]
16°47′S 29°5′E / 16.783°S 29.083°E / -16.783; 29.083
Aircraft
Aircraft typeVickers Viscount 782D
Aircraft nameHunyani
OperatorAir Rhodesia
RegistrationVP-WAS[3]
Flight originVictoria Falls, Rhodesia
Last stopoverKariba, Rhodesia
DestinationSalisbury, Rhodesia
Passengers52
Crew4
Fatalities48 (38 in crash, 10 in massacre at the site)
Survivors8

Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a scheduled passenger flight that was shot down by the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) on 3 September 1978, during the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft involved, a Vickers Viscount named the Hunyani, was flying the last leg of Air Rhodesia's regular scheduled service from Victoria Falls to the capital Salisbury, via the resort town of Kariba.

Soon after Flight 825 took off, a group of ZIPRA guerrillas hit it on its starboard wing with a Soviet-made Strela-2 surface-to-air infrared homing missile, critically damaging the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. An attempted belly landing in a cotton field just west of Karoi was foiled by a ditch, which caused the plane to cartwheel and break up. Of the 52 passengers and four crew, 38 died in the crash; the insurgents then approached the wreckage, rounded up the 10 survivors they could see and massacred them with automatic gunfire. Three passengers survived by hiding in the surrounding bush, while a further five lived because they had gone to look for water before the guerrillas arrived.

ZIPRA leader Joshua Nkomo publicly claimed responsibility for shooting down the Hunyani in an interview with the BBC's Today programme the next day, saying the aircraft had been used for military purposes, but denied that his men had killed survivors on the ground. Most Rhodesians, both black and white,[4] saw the attack as an act of terrorism.[5] A fierce Rhodesian backlash followed against enemy strongholds and increased racial tension. Reports viewing the attack negatively appeared in international journals such as Time magazine, but there was almost no acknowledgement of it by overseas governments, much to the Rhodesian government's indignation.

Talks between Nkomo and Prime Minister Ian Smith, which had been progressing promisingly, were immediately suspended by the Rhodesians, with Smith calling Nkomo a "monster".[6] On 10 September, Smith announced the extension of martial law over selected areas. The Rhodesian Security Forces launched several retaliatory strikes into Zambia and Mozambique over the following months, attacking both ZIPRA and its rival, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The attack on ZIPRA in particular brought great controversy as many of those killed were refugees camping in and around guerrilla positions.[7] In February 1979, ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 827, another civilian flight, in an almost identical incident.

  1. ^ Palley 1966, pp. 742–743
  2. ^ Wessels 2010, p. 273
  3. ^ Guttery 1998, p. 222
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyarota62 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference freeman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference moorcraft154 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference moorcraft155 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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