Saturday’s Turffontein race meeting marked the 35th anniversary of the Hennenman plane crash of 1988, the worst disaster in the history of local racing.
On Tuesday 12 April 1988, a United Airways charter flight crashed into a field outside the Free State town of Hennenman, claiming the lives of all 24 on board.
Those lost were members of the racing community returning from a Bloemfontein race meeting and numbered jockeys Keith Basel, Lawrence Riley, Johannes “Rooies” Fourie (leading Transvaal Jockey at the time), Warren Baillie, Bennie de Wet, Greg Holme, Douglas Roper, Danny Lombard, John McMurtry, Mark Nel, Michael Coetzee, Simon Rahilly and Gordon Sterley; trainer Hennie van Wyk; owners Jacobus Viljoen and Neville Blignaut; racing officials Graham Kent, Dave Bullock, Henry Havergall, Ginger Masterton and Johannes van der Linden and 3 air crew, Jacob Kalt, Harold Whitehead and Jacqueline Henderson.
This year the racing community again paid a special tribute with its annual commemorative race meeting, with the families of those lost, including Warren Baillie, Rooies Fourie and Bennie de Wet, gathering at Turffontein to remember their loved ones.
The day’s races were named in honour of those who lost their lives and 4Racing CEO Fundi Sithebe, along with the families, placed a wreath at the memorial statue, which donated by Mr Emmanuel Cambouris and Dr Hilda Podlas at the main entrance to the course.
Ms Sithebe noted that it was 4Racing’s first opportunity to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy and said that it was done in the spirit of Ubuntu.
