Sermon preached by the Dean, The Very Rev. J. R. da Costa, in the Cathedral of St. Mary and All Saints in Salisbury, Rhodesia, on Friday, 8th September, 1978 at the service for those who died and were massacred in the Viscount air disaster Sunday, 3rd September, 1978. God Bless the souls of the 46 Rhodeisans Murdered in cold blood on this day of 3 September in 1978. Of the 56 people on board, 38, including Hood and Beaumont, died in the crash. Eighteen survived, albeit with injuries, and climbed out of the wreckage. After briefly settling the others, one of the passengers, Cecil MacLaren, led four others—young newlyweds Robert and Shannon Hargreaves, Sharon Coles, and her four-year-old daughter Tracey—off in the direction of a nearby village in search of water.[30] The other 13 remained close to the wreckage. Meanwhile, nine guerrillas made their way towards the crash site, and reached it at about 17:45.[28] Three of the 13 survivors remaining at the crash site hid on seeing figures approaching: Rhodesian Army reservist Anthony Hill, 39, took cover in the surrounding bush, while businessman Hans Hansen and his wife Diana did the same.[27] This left 10 passengers in full view near the wreckage, including four women and two girls (aged 11 and 4).[28] The guerrillas, who were armed with AK-47 rifles, presented themselves to the 10 passengers as friendly, saying they would summon help and bring water.[27] They spoke in English, both to the survivors and among themselves. They told the passengers to congregate around a point a few metres from the wreckage; when the survivors said that some of them were too badly injured to walk, the insurgents told the able-bodied men to carry the others. The passengers were assembled into an area of about 10 square metres (110 sq ft). Standing roughly 15 metres (49 ft) away, the cadres now raised their weapons. "You have taken our land," one of them said.[28] "Please don't shoot us!" one of the passengers cried, just before they were killed by a sustained burst of automatic gunfire. Those that survived the initial bursts were bayoneted (including a mother and her 3-week-old baby).[n 5] Having collected water from the nearby village, MacLaren and his companions were almost back at the crash site when they heard the shots. Thinking it was personal ammunition in the luggage exploding in the heat, they continued on their way, and called out to the other passengers, who they thought were still alive. This alerted the insurgents to the presence of more survivors; one of the guerrillas told MacLaren's group to "come here".[31] The insurgents then opened fire on their general location, prompting MacLaren and the others to flee.[31] Hill and the Hansens also ran; they revealed their positions to the fighters in their haste, but successfully hid themselves behind a ridge. After Hill and the others had hidden there for about two hours, they saw the attackers return to the crash site at about 19:45. The guerrillas looted the wrecked cabin and some of the suitcases strewn around the site, filled their arms with passengers' belongings, then left again.[28] The survivors were found over the following days by the Rhodesian Army and police; Hill and the Hansens were taken to Kariba Hospital, while MacLaren and his group were airlifted to Andrew Fleming Hospital in Salisbury.[30]

??? ???????? ?????? ??? was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Victoria Falls to Salisbury with intermediate stops in Kariba. The flight was being operated by a Vickers Viscount (Reg. VP-WAS) on ????????? ?, ????. The plane departed Kariba at 17:10. Shortly after departure, the starboard wing was hit by a 9K32 Strela-2 shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile (also known as SA-7). An emergency descent was carried out and the crew tried to make an emergency landing in a large clearing in the bush. The plane crash-landed, striking an irrigation ditch, cart-wheeled, broke up and caught fire. Fighters from the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), also responsible for shooting down the airliner, later killed 10 of the 18 survivors. The rest of the survivors were rescued the next day.