74 Vol. 10 / No. 5 / May 2018 Global Aviator
A bit of history
There has a great deal of
speculation surrounding the
circumstances under which an
Angolan MiG-21bis, piloted
by Lt Vinez, landed up on
Schneider-Waterberg’s farm
near Otjiwarongo, South
West Africa (now Namibia).
The following seems to be
regarded as closest to the truth.
On 14 December 1988, two FAPA
MiG-21bis Fishbed aircraft took-off
from the airfield at Lubango. With Lt
Vinez at the controls the aircraft climbed
to altitude on a general heading of 090
degree for a routine flight from FNBU
to the airfield at Luena (some reports
say the flight was to go to Menongue
(FNME) some 400km distant from
Luena. There was significant clouds
along the route, and although Lt Vinez
continued eastwards as planned, the
aircraft on a number of occasions
entered clouds and when regaining
visual contact with the ground, the
pilot was unable to orientate himself
as to where he was. After a while, he
elected to divert to Cuito Cuanavale,
South East of FNME. According to Lt
Vinez, he had lost all his visual cues
that he had been used to using when
navigating between these airfields. The
second MiG's pilot apparently realised
the error when well across the border,
and returned to Angolan airspace.
After setting a South Easterly
heading, he still believed that he would
soon pick up the beacons of Cuito
Cuanavale, this never happened as he
was way to the west of his planned
route at this time. The only maps
carried in FAPA aircraft were standard
‘Shell’ road maps, which were basically
useless in an aircraft under normal
circumstances, never mind during an
Instrument Flight Rules mission!
After approximately 20 minutes,
he had crossed the Cubago River
mistaking it for the Cuito River. The
area to the east of the Cuito River was
UNITA occupied territory. Continuing
on his present course, the aircraft
began giving Lt Vinez a ‘Low Fuel’
warning. He then elected to attempt an
emergency landing and after preparing
the aircraft for the forced landing, he
selected an open field, and executed a
deadstick wheels-down landing on soft,
wet ground covered with buffalo grass.
The ground run was about 400m, but
the left maingear hit an anthill and was
torn off and the nose gear collapsed.
The farm was located near Otjiwarango,
about 259 nm south of the border.
The event was regarded as a
“defection” to South Africa by the
media and government although
reports indicate that this was not
the case and during discussions at
the accident site with Lt Vinez, his
greatest concern was that he was
indeed in UNITA occupied territory.
His fighter's 23 mm cannons hada full load of ammunition, but no
missiles were being carried. Lt Vinez
surrendered his service pistol to the
local police and was taken prisoner by
the SADF. He was flown to Pretoria and
taken first to the Military Intelligence
College, and then the following
day to a Military Intelligence farm/
base outside Pretoria called Fontana
where he was again examined by
a MI medical doctor and found in
perfect health. Although he could notLost MiG
Did Lt Domingos José de
Almeida Vinez defect to South
Africa or did he get lost?
Above: The SAAF used to mark their Mirages when
the pilots shot down a MiG-21Bis Fishbed
during the Angolan War.Right: A MiG-21Bis of the type that Lt Domingos José
de Almeida Vinez flew in and that the SAAF
Museum kept until recently.