Background
South African Airways Flight 295 was a scheduled international passenger flight connecting Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, with Jan Smuts International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a stopover at Plaisance Airport in Plaine Magnien, Mauritius. The aircraft serving the flight was a Boeing 747 named Helderberg.
Accident
On November 28, 1987, the aircraft experienced a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area. It broke up in mid-air and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius. All 159 passengers and crew on board were killed.
Aftermath
An extensive salvage operation was mounted to recover the aircraft's flight recorders. One recorder was recovered from a depth of 16,100 feet (4,900 metres), deeper than the depth at which the RMS Titanic sank. The crash is also known as the Helderberg disaster.