At 17 : 10 Captain Hood sent a distress call to air traffic control , informing them that he had lost the two starboard engines and was going to crash . " We 're going in , " he radioed . Telling his passengers to brace for an emergency landing , he aimed for an open field of cotton in the Whamira Hills , in the bush to the west of Karoi , intending to belly land the craft . The landing was relatively stable until the Hunyani hit a previously unseen ditch , cartwheeled and exploded . The remaining fuel tanks ruptured and caught fire , setting the wrecked cabin ablaze .