On this day, the revolutionary leader of Mozambique liberation movement FRELIMO and first Mozambican President Samora Moises Machel, was killed in plane crash on 19 October 1986. The death of the President sent shockwaves throughout the world. Also killed in the crash were thirty three members of his party and the crew of the Russian built Tupolev TU 134A.

The plane was returning from a Summit of African leaders held in Zambia. It went down in the Lebombo mountains near Mbuzini in Neslpruit eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). The crash site was an area where the South African border connected with Swaziland and Mozambique. The fact that it crashed over South African territory raised some questions about the possibilities of the involvement of the apartheid government. Of the thirty-four people on board only nine survived the crash.

After the crash a Commission, made of representatives from South Africa, Mozambique and Soviet Union, was instituted to establish the cause of the crash. Many possible reasons, ranging from the mechanical fault to bad weather conditions, were put forward as the cause of the crash. However the investigations failed to pin-point the precise cause of the crash. The new democratic South African government called for a new inquiry to determine the real cause of the crash and death of the President Machel and his party.