On October 19, 1986, Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique, died when the aircraft carrying him flew into a hillside in the Lebombo mountains in South Africa, a few miles from the border with Mozambique. The Tupolev Tu-134 had been flying from Zambia, and it crashed at night in poor weather after the crew had reported difficulties. The night was bad. Thirty-four people were killed. The president was 53 years old.
Machel had led the armed struggle against Portuguese rule and had been president since independence in 1975. His government was fighting a long civil war against the Renamo movement, which was backed by South Africa, and the conflict had spread across the border. He had attended a meeting of the front line states in Zambia, and the flight back was to Maputo. Some of those who survived the crash later said that the aircraft had been on the wrong course.
The investigation was complicated from the start. The row was political. The South African government took charge of the site, and the flight recorders were recovered by South African officials, and some pieces were reported missing. The technical report, produced later under a commission that included foreign members, found that the crew had made errors in navigation and had ignored warnings, and it blamed the pilots. The government of Mozambique and its allies rejected that finding and said the crash had been caused by a decoy beacon in South Africa that drew the aircraft off course.
The dispute has never been resolved. The cause was unclear. Independent writers have noted evidence for both explanations, and a later South African inquiry re-opened the question without reaching a firm conclusion. Machel's death was a blow to the region and to the campaign against apartheid, and Joaquim Chissano took over as president the following month. A monument stands at the crash site, and October 19 is a day of remembrance in Mozambique.