Dag Hammarskold, United Nations Secretary-General, died on the night
of 17/18 September 1961 when his DC6 aircraft crashed in the forest
some nine miles short of the runway of Ndola Airport, Northern Rhodesia,
then part of the Central African Federation. Was the plane shot or otherwise
forced down? Was there a bomb or even an assassin on board? Not only
two Federal Inquiries and the Northern Rhodesia inquest, but the UN inquiry
too, were unable to find reliable evidence to show other than that the aircraft
was making a normal approach ready to land but too low. Colin Rawlins
DFC, senior District Officer at Ndola at the time, an experienced aviator who
visited the scene in 1961, wrote in 2002 that the only possible explanation
was pilot error. To those on the ground only aircraft lights would have been
visible in the black night and those who gave evidence of seeing a second
smaller aircraft approach were, he judged, probably confused by the size of
the DC6 with its tail and other lights flashing into thinking there were two
rather than only one aircraft.
On page 7 Susan Williams writes of the Federation: '...the franchise was
confined to the white minority'. On page 53 she describes the Federal
Parliament as 'whites-only'. Neither statement is accurate. There were
enough inequalities in the Rhodesias without the need to exaggerate them
but the author seems determined to do so at every opportunity and
regardless of relevance to the fate of the Secretary-General. Basically as far
as she is concerned, UN, Asians and Africans, good; non-UN whites,
whether Rhodesian, British or American, suspect. She cannot conceive that
anyone could have honestly believed that immediate majority rule would not
be in the best interests of any section of the population. She either does not
know or does not want to know that the Government of Northern Rhodesia,
its civil servants and police were not under the control of the Federal
Government. Nevertheless despite extensive research she cannot say
precisely who did it and how.
The fact is that uncertainty as to Hammarskold's intentions led to failure to
grasp the seriousness of the situation by the Airport Manager when junior
police officers reported seeing a strange light in the sky. Police patrols found
nothing that night. In the morning the Federal Civil Aviation Department, the
responsible authority, instigated an air search.
At the Aviation Department inquiry in 1961, the evidence of Timothy
1100 hrs and 1200 hrs on 18 September he had told a District Officer, Mr Garfitt, that
during the night he had heard two aircraft and seen a bright light in the sky.
In 1979 Kankasa told a Swedish TV researcher that between 0900 and
0930 hrs on 18 September 1961, having heard of the crash from charcoal
burners and visited the scene, he had informed the police officer
commanding Western Division. No police action resulted. He said he had
related this to the inquiry in 1961 but it had been ignored. He does not
appear to have been asked about his evidence actually recorded at the
inquiry. Unlike Susan Williams I don't regard Kankasa's 1979 statement as
reliable.
In fact at about 1400 hrs on 18 September Detective Constable Sicimo
reported to D/lnsp Ray Lowes at Ndola Central Police Station with three
Africans he had arrested at the beer hall trying to sell a cypher machine they
had found at the crashsite. Assistant Superintendent M T Cary, guided by
the arrested persons, led a police party to the scene and Investigations
commenced. This was the first police party on the scene and as far as can
be ascertained, no-one apart from local Africans got there before them. The
three who were arrested were not 'framed', whatever Susan Williams may
believe, and D/Const Sicimo appears to have been the first police officer to
learn of the tragedy.
No OSPA member with high blood pressure should read this book.
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