South African Airways Flight 228
Boeing 707-344C · Controlled flight into terrain due by pilot error, spatial disorientation, and design flaw and GPWS malfunction
From O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 123 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 128
- Survivors
- 5
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 5
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Boeing 707-344C
- Flight
- SA228
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZS-EUW
- Operator
- South African Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 123
- Route
- From O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)To London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Environmental issues › Task environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
South African Airways Flight 228 was a scheduled flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to London, England. The Boeing 707 operating the flight, which was only six weeks old, flew into the ground soon after take-off after a scheduled stopover in Windhoek, South West Africa (present day Namibia) on 20 April 1968. Five passengers survived, while 123 people died. The subsequent investigation determined that the accident was attributable largely to pilot error; the manufacturer subsequently also recognised the lack of a ground proximity warning system in its aircraft. The accident is the deadliest aviation accident to date in Namibia.
Flight route
The flight route was Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg, to Heathrow Airport via Windhoek, Luanda, Las Palmas, and Frankfurt. The first leg of the flight from Johannesburg to JG Strijdom Airport, Windhoek, South West Africa, was uneventful. An additional 46 passengers embarked in Windhoek, and some airfreight was unloaded and loaded. The aircraft took off from Windhoek on runway 08 at 18:49 GMT (20:49 local time). It was a dark, moonless night with few, if any, lights on the ground in the open desert east of the runway; the aircraft took off into what was described in the official report as a "black hole". The aircraft initially climbed to an altitude of 650 ft above ground level, then leveled off after 30 seconds and started to descend.
Accident
Fifty seconds after take-off, it flew into the ground in flight configuration at a speed of approximately 271 kn. The Boeing 707's four engines were the first parts of the aircraft to touch the ground, creating four deep gouges in the soil before the rest of the aircraft struck the ground and broke apart. Two fires erupted immediately when the aircraft's fuel tanks ignited. Although the crash site was only 5,327 metres (17,477 ft) from the end of the runway, emergency services took 40 minutes to reach the scene due to the rugged terrain. Nine passengers seated in the forward section of the fuselage initially survived, but two died soon after the accident, and two more passed away a few days later, bringing the final death toll to 123 passengers and crew members.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation was complicated by the fact that the aircraft did not have a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder; the devices became mandatory from 1 January 1968, but the airline's inability to procure recorders meant that several SAA aircraft, including ZS-EUW, did not yet have the equipment fitted. Captain Smith had 4,608 flying hours on the Boeing 707, but only one hour (which was in training) on the new type 344C. The official investigation concluded that the aircraft and its four engines were in working order— primary fault lay with the captain and first officer, as they "failed to maintain a safe airspeed and altitude and a positive climb by not observing flight instruments during take-off"; no blame was attributed to the third pilot, whose responsibility it was to monitor the radio, and who was unable to monitor the flight instruments from his position in the cockpit. Secondary factors that may have contributed to the accident included:
Loss of situational awareness
The crew had no visual reference in the dark, leading to spatial disorientation.
The crew used a flap retraction sequence from the 707-B series which retracted flaps in larger increments than desirable for that stage of the flight, leading to a loss of lift at 600 ft above ground level.
Temporary confusion on the part of the pilots when reading the vertical speed indicator, which was different from the A and B series of the aircraft to which they were accustomed.
The drum-type altimeter fitted to the aircraft, was notoriously difficult for pilots to read; the crew may have misread their altitude by 1,000 feet.
Flight deck distraction as the result of a bird strike or other minor occurrence.
After investigating this accident, as well as a number of others that also involved controlled flight into terrain, the Federal Aviation Administration determined that a ground proximity warning system would have helped prevent some of the accidents. New regulations were therefore introduced from February 1972 requiring all turbojet aircraft to be fitted with the system.
Text from the Wikipedia article “South African Airways Flight 228” (revision 1364376420, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: South African Airways Flight 228
- Revision
- 1364376420 · 2026-07-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7565425
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "South African Airways Flight 228" (page 30484720, revision 1364376420)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.