The day we remember Hennenman

13 April 2012 - 02:04 By Mike Moon
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Mike Moon.
Mike Moon.
Image: SUPPLIED

A Free State farmer glanced up on an early autumn evening and saw a ball of fire hurtling through the sky. He made out a large aircraft in terrible trouble, its starboard wing ablaze.

As the farmer watched, the stricken plane lost altitude. It fell to earth in a mealie field, skidded for 200m, exploding in a mass of flame. No one on board could have survived that crash near the hamlet of Hennenman.

When it became clear hours later who was on board, it shocked the nation, not to mention the racing industry. Among the 24 killed were 13 jockeys, some of South Africa's finest young riders. Racing officials, owners and trainers also died.

It was Tuesday April 12 1988, and the passengers were returning to Johannesburg after taking part in a race meeting in Bloemfontein.

The meeting was due to have been held the previous week, with the racing party booked to travel on a scheduled South African Airways flight. But when rain forced the racing to be postponed, SAA couldn't accommodate a booking change and a plane was specially chartered to transport jockeys and officials to Bloem - and back again.

Later, the logbook of the aged Dakota of United Airways revealed it had not been properly serviced and maintained. Fuel leaked and a fire started in the starboard engine, later spreading to the fuselage.

Passengers and crew probably lost consciousness in the smoke-filled cabin before the crash.

The subsequent inquiry failed to pin blame for the disaster on anyone, with United Airways having gone bust. Suggestions that an airworthiness certificate was falsified and government officials had been negligent were not rigorously pursued.

Racing folk couldn't shrug off their great tragedy like the authorities did - and they still haven't .

Every year the Hennenman memorial race meeting is held, with the bereaved families gathering. It takes place this Sunday at Turffontein, with races dedicated to those lost.

Remembered are: jockeys Keith Basel, Lawrence Riley, Johannes "Rooies" Fourie, Warren Baillie, Bennie de Wet, Greg Holme, Douglas Roper, Danny Lombard, John McMurtry, Mark Nel, Michael Coetzee, Simon Rahilly and Gordon Sterley; officials Graham Kent, Dave Bullock, Henry Havergall, Ginger Masterton and Johannes van der Linden; owners Jacobus Viljoen and Neville Blignaut; trainer Hennie van Wyk, and air crew Jacob Kalt, Harold Whitehead and Jacqueline Henderson.

The jockeys had the potential to have been as good as the later golden generation of Strydom, Whyte, Marcus, Marwing and Delpech.

Many old-timers reckon the mercurial Rooies Fourie would have eclipsed them all.

Many racing posers are answered in a matter of minutes, with hooves on turf. But not the questions about what might have been.

TURFFONTEIN, SUNDAY: PA - 3,7,10 x 2,7 x 5,11 x 1 x 1 x 3,13 x 2,3,9,13 (R96)

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