Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a 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, a
Vickers Viscount, was flying
Air Rhodesia's scheduled service from
Victoria Falls to the capital
Salisbury, via the resort town of
Kariba. Soon after its takeoff, ZIPRA guerrillas launched a Soviet-made
Strela 2 surface-to-air missile at the plane. Attempting a
belly landing in a cotton field west of
Karoi, the plane hit an unseen ditch, cartwheeled, and exploded. Of the 52 passengers and four crew, 38 died in the crash. The insurgents then massacred 10 survivors with automatic gunfire.
Joshua Nkomo, the ZIPRA leader, publicly claimed responsibility for the missile attack (but not for the massacre) on the
BBC's
Today programme the same evening, saying the aircraft had been used for military purposes. Most Rhodesians, black and white, saw the attack as an act of terrorism. Martial law and a fierce white Rhodesian backlash followed, even though few black Rhodesians supported the attack. Five months later, ZIPRA shot down
Air Rhodesia Flight 827 in a similar incident. (
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