Air Rhodesia Flight 825 [SEP] point in time
Air Rhodesia Flight 825
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.
Soon after Flight 825 took off, a group of ZIPRA guerrillas scored a hit on its starboard wing with
from Salisbury, returning home after a weekend at the lake. The flight took off from Kariba Airport on schedule soon after 17:00 Central Africa Time.
Flight 825 was piloted by 36-year-old Captain John Hood, a native of Bulawayo who had gained his commercial pilot licence in 1966. He had flown Viscounts for Air Rhodesia since 1968, and had also served in the Rhodesian Air Force on a voluntary basis. His first officer, Garth Beaumont, was 31 years old, and had lived in Rhodesia for most of his