At the time of the collision, the Tupolev was flying on a southerly route from Niamey, Niger, to Cape Town, South Africa, while the C-141 was heading northwest from Windhoek, Namibia, to Ascension Island.

[2] A year before the accident, the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations had stated that from a safety point of view, 75 percent of African airspace was "critically deficient.

[4][5] The Tupolev Tu-154M involved, tail number 11+02 [de], was one of two in the Luftwaffe inventory, both inherited from the East German Air Force.

[7] Flying under the callsign GAF 074, the aircraft had made a stopover in Niamey and was due to land in Windhoek for another refueling stop before continuing on to Cape Town.

The aircraft changed altitude as it passed western Africa and turned in an easterly direction, in compliance with airway requirements.

At 14:11 UTC, the United States Air Force C-141B departed from Windhoek, Namibia, for Ascension Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic.

Contributing to the communications breakdowns, the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network, a system that facilitates the exchange of messages between air controllers was not working at the time.

The air traffic control center in Windhoek received the last communication from the C-141B crew via high-frequency radio, who stated they were level at 35,000 feet.

An international search effort by the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, and several African countries ensued, scouring the seas off Namibia for any signs of wreckage.

[13] The South African Air Force stated it had received a signal from a life jacket emergency beacon, raising the hope of finding survivors.

In addition the report cited systemic problems in Africa's air traffic control system as contributing factors to the accident, blaming faulty communications equipment that prevented the German aircraft's flight plan from being transmitted through the proper channels and negligent controllers in Luanda who failed to pass on the aircraft's position to Namibian ATC.

"[19] One day before the release of the report, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced that the military would begin the installation of TCAS on its aircraft.

[22] Despite being listed on the Project Objective Memorandum of the C-141B for five years, installation of the TCAS began on a small number of the aircraft soon after the crash.