Soon after Flight 825 took off , a group of ZIPRA guerrillas scored a direct hit on its starboard wing with a Soviet @-@ made Strela 2 surface @-@ to @-@ air infrared homing missile , critically damaging the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing . An attempted belly landing in a cotton field just west of Karoi was foiled by an unseen ditch , which caused the plane to cartwheel and break up . Of the 52 passengers and four crew , 38 died in this crash ; the insurgents then approached the wreckage , rounded up the 10 survivors they could see and massacred them with automatic gunfire . Three passengers survived by hiding in the surrounding bush , while a further five lived because they had gone to look for water before the guerrillas arrived .