Posted on 04/28/2026 7:06:50 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
At 5pm on 3 September Air Rhodesia Flight 825 took off from the Kariba Airport runway, and the passengers made themselves comfortable for their flight to Salisbury. The plane was packed full of families, especially families from Bulawayo. There was no direct flight from Kariba and so the most efficient way home was to head for Salisbury first. The flight had begun as normal, the Viscount was climbing well and air hostesses Dulcie and Brenda were already well into action and serving their 52 passengers.
Hans Hansen, a Dane, was the last to board the plane. He was heading to Bulawayo with his wife Diana to see some friends. For whatever reason, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he had a sinking feeling inside. His gut instinct was correct; down below, there was a ZIPRA missile team intently watching the plane. Their target, almost certainly, was General Peter Walls, but he was still down below at the airport.
As the plane passed overhead, the infrared eye of the missile launcher locked onto it, then, once the indicator lamp turned from red to green, the operator squeezed down on the trigger. The missile slammed into the wheel bay of the Hunyani, near the edge of engine number three...
.....
On Tuesday morning, 5 September, the Herald ran the headline: ‘18 Live through Plane Crash Horror, Then… TERRORISTS KILL 10 SURVIVORS: Shot at Point Blank Range.’8 Every recollection of events from the time stresses the sheer level of rage, an almost indescribable rage that now swept the nation. The public wasn’t even precisely aware of how the plane had come down yet. When they found out it had been shot down by a ZIPRA missile team, the rage quickly turned into an insatiable desire for revenge.
.....
(Excerpt) Read more at zoomerhistorian.substack.com ...
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Viscount ? How old is this ?
This happened in 1978.
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. - WikipediaRegards,
You might want to warn the readers that they can look all day long for the date and not find when it happened.
1978!
They stopped production on the Viscount in 1963 and the last one was retired in 2009!
Others beat me to it...
Back when Rhodesia was still called Rhodesia and had white people in it. ‘70s, sometime.
Joshua Nkomo, who helped found the ZIPRA marxist guerrilla group which shot down the plane, was later exiled (to London, of course) by Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) faction.
When Mugabe took full control of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Mugabe also conducted a massacre of Nkomo’s Ndebele tribe political base, more than 40K killed.
So what goes around, comes around
Also, never trust a Marxist.
1978...it took me all of 30 seconds to find it......just sayin’. SMH
The 1st comment at the story:
“Funny how Africans fear white reprisals after they commit atrocities.”
Ain’t it the truth.....in this country as well for that matter
It is indeed.
L
Sept 3. :)
Excellent article. Read the entire thing and was impressed by the Zoomer who wrote it.
Especially this part, as to where the Tigercat missile came from that shot down the civilian airliner, 10 of the survivors then killed by terrorists:
“The British Government hadn’t said a word to Rhodesia. Instead, Prime Minister Callaghan went and met with President Kaunda and promised him the world. The Zambian President was terrified of Rhodesian retaliation and so, at the cost of ten million pounds, Callaghan sent him a modern air defence system and Tigercat missiles. The idea that these systems could be used against Rhodesian civilian airliners from across the Zambezi didn’t particularly seem to trouble the PM.”
And, there was retaliation by White Rhodesians.
Rhodesia should give you a clue. The story didn’t end well for the colonists.
Chatgpt:
Rhodesia was a short-lived, internationally unrecognized country in southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. It eventually became modern-day Zimbabwe.
Background
Rhodesia was a British colony (Southern Rhodesia) governed by a white minority. In 1965, its government—led by Ian Smith—made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom to avoid moving toward majority (Black African) rule.
What happened next
The move was rejected by Britain and most of the world.
Rhodesia faced international sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
A long guerrilla war broke out, known as the Rhodesian Bush War, fought between the white-led government and African nationalist groups like:
Robert Mugabe (ZANU)
Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU)
The end of Rhodesia
By the late 1970s, the war, economic pressure, and international isolation forced negotiations. In 1979, the Lancaster House Agreement was signed in London:
Rhodesia briefly returned to British control.
Elections were held with universal suffrage.
Transition to Zimbabwe
In 1980:
The country officially became Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe became its first prime minister.
In short
Rhodesia didn’t “disappear” overnight—it transformed after a prolonged conflict and international pressure into a majority-ruled independent state: Zimbabwe.
Those rascally democrats!
Bkmk
Tribal society problems
Rhodesia???? Isn’t it Zimbabwa NOW?
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