Opinion | A moment by the sea: A tragedy revisited

Belle Mare, like most Mauritius beaches, is gorgeous. Little waves lap up on white sand while bigger ones crash against the coral reef that encircles the island; coconut palms here on there on the shoreline and forest of casuarina trees making for a perfect picnic area out of the wind and the sun. In the forest is an old lime kiln made of volcanic rock, a relic to the hurricane-interrupted days when the blood, sweat and tears of pirates, settlers, slaves and indentured labour started building the island economy on sugar cane.

The process involved burning coral limestone or seashells at very high temperatures. The resulting quicklime was then mixed with water to make slaked lime for construction. A stone’s throw from the kiln is a modest, spike-shaped monument with something distinctly South African about its design.

It’s a memorial to that much-spoken about mysterious tragedy nearly 40 years ago more than two hundred kilometres into the ocean off Mauritius. The pilot of the Helderberg flight to South Africa told the control tower at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport that there was a fire on board and that he needed to make an emergency landing. It had been en route to Johannesburg from Taiwan, still South Africa’s friend back in 1987 when apartheid had a few more years to go.

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No investigation has come up with a conclusive answer as to what caused this fire. Speculation is rife that it was something weapon-related. While the answer would wrap up a story in history, it won’t bring back the tragic loss of the 159 lives who were on board.

I was a reporter at the Star in Johannesburg when I woke up to the news that a flight was Taiwan was “overdue”. It’s a word I didn’t hear as often in news reporting as “allegedly” and “averted” but it has since stuck in my head. My news editor sent me out to what was the Jan Smuts Internation- al Airport (now O R Tambo International Airport) where a handful of people were at international arrivals. At an unmanned desk was a handwritten notice stating that Flight SA 295 was overdue — that word again — and a list of telephone numbers for people to call.

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