South Africa bus crash

[Jim Eshelman]

March 28, 2024, morning (EET -2), near Mamatlakala, South Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamatlaka ... y_accident
[originally posted the day it occurred; better coordinates later]

A bus lost control and plunged off a cliff falling 165 feet into a ravine in South Africa today, catching fire on impact and killing 45 people (or 46 passengers) on an Easter pilgrimage from Molepolole, Botswana to Moria in Limpopo. - The passengers were carrying canisters of fuel for cooking on their pilgrimage and this burst into flame after the impact: They were burned alive.

One person survived, an 8-year-old girl who was flown to medical treatment.

CNN describes the location as in South Africa's Limpopo province, in the Mamatlakala mountain pass between Mokopane and Marken. It was on highway R518. Limpolo province is roughly 24° South, 29° East. We'll probably have exact coordinates soon, along with a time of the accident.

UPDATE 3/29: It looks like we won't get exact location or time information (at least, not soon). I will use Mamatlakala and, for "morning," 10 AM. (The location is more critical to the ingresses than the time.) Using the spelling Mmatlakala, I have found a place on R518 exactly at Mmatlakala, which is about halfway between Mokopane and Marken. I just learned that the bus fell of the Mma Matlakala Bridge, which links two hillsides near Mmatlakala. I suspect it is the pass at 23S58'58'', 28E34'28'' (though that stretch isn't swervy). At 10 AM, Mars was culminating with Saturn soon to follow, so we're in the approximate range, I'm sure.

The Liblunar is exactly right! (The Caplunar is all the right symbolism and the planets are close enough! They make a good pair.) But then the CapQ is all wrong (unless you count it was deaths during a religious pilgrimage). The AriQ repeats the CapQ symbolism ore or less then adds more violent Moon transits.

Year: Capsolar (Dormant.) Moon-Venus Moon-Neptune.
Year: Cansolar (Dormant.) Moon-Sun Moon-Pluto.

Bridge (None.)

Quarter: Libsolar {-1 or -2}
Jupiter on EP 0°44'
Mars widely foreground

Month: Caplunar {+2}
Sun on Dsc 0°11'
Mercury, Saturn, & Neptune more widely foreground
Mercury-Neptune co 2°37' M
Sun-Saturn co 2°57' M
-- Moon-Uranus sq 0°07' M

Week: Liblunar {+2 at least}
Mercury on IC 0°32'
Moon on MC 1°16'
Pluto on Asc 2°13'
-- Moon-Mercury op 0°02'
-- Moon-Pluto sq 0°56'
-- Mercury-Pluto sq 1°41' M

Day: Capsolar Quotidian {+1?}
[Rating this is difficult. It was a catastrophe on a religions pilgrimage, so this might be exactly right. Just hard to say.]
p Asc op t Jupiter 1°10'
p MC op t Pluto 1°17'

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits {+1}
t Mercury sq s Moon 0°40'

Day: Arisolar Quotidian & Transits {+2 or +3}
p Moon-Sturn co 0°00'
-- t Mars co p Moon 0°04'. co p Saturn 0°04'
p Asc co t Jupiter 0°28', s Uranus 0°34'
t MC sq t Uranus 0°40'
---------------------------------------------------
[Since we don't know the location, it's hard to judge this. Arisolar MC for the coordinates I'm using is 11°33' Aquarius, so t Mars conjunct ingress Saturn 0°02' and square ingress Venus 38' is just outside the usual 2° orb.]

Day: Libsolar Quotidian & Transits {+2}
p Asc co s Mars 1°05', sq t Pluto 1°34'
-------------------------------
[If the time estimate is right, t Moon was on Libsolar Descendant opposite its rising Jupiter.]

[Jim Eshelman]

[Posted 3/29/24]

I suspect it is the pass at 23S58'58'', 28E34'28'' (though that stretch isn't swervy).

If we have need to refine this, there is another pass with tight curves on either side at:
-23.973174525294713, 28.535943718706918
23S58'23'' - 28E32'09''

Barely any difference.

NOTE 12/8/24: Wikipedia now gives the coordinates as 23S58'33", 28E32'07", almost precisely what I recalculated.