air rhodesia

Air Rhodesia traces its roots back to the 1^st June1946, when Central African Airways was formed. This airline was the joint national carrier of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, with 50% of the shareholding held by the government of Southern Rhodesia.

The airline grew by stages, utilizing a variety of aircraft types, until in April 1953, Central African Airways Inaugurated a weekly service between Salisbury and London, and at a lower fare than the then British national carrier of the time, BOAC.

The Salisbury to London route became more frequent in 1954, when two flights per week were laid on. Also in 1954, a weekly flight between Salisbury and Durban, South Africa, was introduced. This was a great boon for land-locked Rhodesian holidaymakers, who could now easily take a break on the beautiful Natal coast.

With the break up of the Central African Federation in 1963, and the independence of both Northern Rhodesia, which became Zambia, and Nyasaland, which became Malawi, in 1964, Central African Airways found itself divided between the two nations above, and Southern Rhodesia, which had now become simply, Rhodesia. Central African airways continued to exist as such, but was answerable to the governments of all three nations, subsidiaries were formed which flew aircraft in their own national liveries.

Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence from the UK in 1965 caused major problems for its airline. The imposition of sanctions by the international community meant that almost all international flights operating through Rhodesia were ended, with the exception of TAP, the national airline of Portugal, and SAA, the South African national carrier.

The increasingly strained political situation caused the break up of Central African Airways in 1967, and Air Rhodesia was born as a fully fledged independent airline. It is a tribute to the management skills and the dedication of the staff of the new airline, that despite all the problems and trade sanctions, which made sourcing replacement parts much more difficult, Air Rhodesia still made a healthy profit.

In 1974, a revolution occurred in Portugal, this was followd by the hasty granting of independence to her overseas possessions in Africa during 1975, and the abandonment of its nationals to their dreadful fate. This situation meant the end of Air Rhodesia flights to both Mozambique and Malawi, as in 1976, the government of Mozambique banned Rhodesian aircraft from its air space.

On 3^rd September 1978, Air Rhodesia suffered a terrible tragedy when one of its Viscount aircraft, VP - WAS, was downed by a surface-to-air missile whilst climbing after taking off from Kariba. This barbarous act of murder was commited by the terrorist forces controlled by Joshua Nkomo, operating out of bases in Zambia. Only eight people eventually managed to survive the subsequent crash, others were alive after the aircraft had landed, but they were abused and slaughtered by Nkomo's forces in cold blood, as they lay badly injured close to the remains of the aircraft. Those murdered by Nkomo's 'animals' included tiny children and old people.

Joshua Nkomo - Terrorist Leader

On the 12^th February 1979, disaster struck again when another Viscount, VP - YND, was also shot out of the sky by another surface-to-air missle fired by Nkomo's murderers. There were no survivors from this appalling act of beastiality.

With the coming of the internal settlement in Rhodesia during 1979, when a black majority rule government was elected, under the leadership of Abel Muzorewa, Rhodesia changed is name to, Zimbabwe - Rhodesia. In tune with this change on the political front, Air Rhodesia became, Air Zimbabwe - Rhodesia.

In February 1980 after new fraudulent elections, agreed to at the Lancaster House Conference in London, were won by the Marxist terrorist leader Robert Mugabe, in a campaign marked by intimidation and violence, Air Rhodesia became Air Zimbabwe, and began its gradual decline into the shambolic symbol of a famine-ridden, devastated and bankrupt nation Zimbabwe is today under Mugabe's despotic rule.