In April 1989, one of the 707s transported 300 Australian Army personnel in two flights to Namibia as part of the Australian contribution to UNTAG, the United Nations Transition Assistance Group policing the country's transition to independence. Later that year, the squadron helped ferry members of the Australian public when the two domestic airlines were grounded during an industrial dispute; it was similarly employed in 1991 following the demise of Compass Airlines. On 29 October 1991, one of the transport-configured 707s crashed into the sea during a training flight out of East Sale, Victoria; all five crew members were killed. The coronial inquest into this accident found that training in the asymmetric handling manoeuvre that caused the crash was deficient, and that the RAAF lacked a proper understanding of the handling characteristics of its 707s. The Coroner's first recommendation related to the need for appropriate simulation for this type of training, an area not properly recognised or addressed by the RAAF at the time. No. 33 Squadron transported Australian troops to and from Somalia as part of Operation Solace in 1993.