Europe
Denmark 1980
Eric
Broekhuizen wrote:
One of the many consequences of the South
African government’s policy of apartheid was that it was deprived of access to
sophisticated arms and search and rescue technology by bodies such as the
United Nations. As a result, we were not
able to upgrade the search and rescue capability along our long coastline. In spite of this, the outside world still
looked to us for assistance whenever any of their ships were in trouble. One such incident occurred in 1980.
The Danish government approached the
Department on 12 January 1980 and informed us that one of their merchant marine
vessels, the M S “Pep Ice”, had gone aground at Bassas da India in the
Mocambique Channel, and that the ship was in the process of breaking up. We were asked if it would be at all possible
to rescue the crew from the stranded vessel.
I approached the South African Air Force and asked if they were able to
assist. Their immediate response was
that it was impossible as the Bassas da India was too far from land for any of
our helicopters to make it there and back.
Furthermore, the closest land was Mocambique where we would have to
refuel, and our relations with that country in 1980, five years after
independence, were not good. I informed
the Danish Embassy accordingly.
A few hours later I received a telephone
call from General Earp of the SAAF. He
was quite excited and told me that that they had researched the matter more
deeply and that they had discovered that there was a gravel airstrip on the
nearby Europa Island ,
which belonged to France . If the SAAF could get permission to land
there, they were confident that they could dismantle a Puma helicopter, stow it
in a Transall transport aircraft and take enough avgas with them to fuel the
helicopter for the trips between Europa and Bassas, rescue the crew and return
to Pretoria . However, for this to happen they had to get
permission from Mocambique to land at Maputo to
refuel as well as to overfly Mocambican airspace, and they needed permission
from the French to land on Europa
Island . This was conveyed to the Danish Embassy with
the request that they obtained the necessary authorizations from the French and
Mocambican authorities. Meanwhile the
SAAF was making its preparations to depart as soon as the requisite
authorizations had been received. While
the Danes were involved in getting the necessary authorizations, I considered
it prudent to inform our contact in the Mocambican government, Sergio Vieira,
of developments.
Obtaining French permission was simple and
it was given immediately. The Mocambican
angle was considerably more difficult.
Because of the parlous state of relations between South Africa and
Mocambique, the Danes felt that it would be essential to obtain the approval of
President Samora Machel himself. The
problem was that the Danes did not have representation in Maputo, so they approached
the Swedes for assistance. They in turn
were informed that the President was out of town and that he would only return
to Maputo the
next day. In view of the fact that the
weather was worsening and the ship was beginning to break up, the Swedish
Ambassador realized that time was of the essence. He managed to ascertain exactly where the
President was and went out to see him.
At 2am he managed to get the President’s approval, and by 3am I was able
to scramble the SAAF.
By 5am the three Transalls were on their
way, one carrying the Puma helicopter, the second carrying the fuel and the
third taking the personnel. When they
arrived at Maputo airport at 6:30am, they were completely unexpected and the
Mocambicans thought they were being invaded by the South African Air
Force! The planes were required to
circle for a while until the tower managed to find out that the mission had
been authorized by their President.
After refueling, the three aircraft left
for Europa, and by 3pm that same day, the helicopter was on its way to Bassas
da India. The crew later reported that
they were overcome to see this solitary helicopter coming from nowhere to pick
them off the ship while it was breaking up.
Then the whole mission reversed itself, and by 10pm the Danish crew
arrived at Waterkloof Air Base outside Pretoria. Naturally we made quite a bit of this rescue,
and Minister Pik Botha and members of the press were out in force to take
photographs and interview the somewhat bemused survivors.
Fourteen years later, I was Consul-General
in Chicago and was invited to a dinner to welcome the newly-arrived Danish
Consul-General, Bent Kiilerich. Over a
very convivial table, for some reason I related the story of this
shipwreck. One of the American guests
remarked that it sounded quite preposterous, whereupon Kiilerich calmly
remarked that the story I had related was perfectly true. Unknown to me, he had been the Danish
co-ordinator of the rescue in Copenhagen and he assured the guests that it had
been quite difficult to get all the role players onto the same page!
I may also add that the rescue itself elicited
considerable comment from aviation experts and admirers in view of its
technical difficulty and the innovative way in which the SAAF solved the
problem.
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