SAA Brussels vaccines crew may be guilty of negligence

A preliminary assessment indicates SAA was negligent in not reporting within the legal time limit a safety-related incident involving an Airbus A340-600 chartered to fly to Belgium to collect vaccines in February, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) says.

The incident allegedly involved a near-stall incident after takeoff from OR Tambo International Airport on 24 February. It was only averted when automated systems kicked in.

The incident was “reportable” to the authority and had to be done within 72 hours of its occurrence, according to the law. Sacaa’s Kabelo Ledwaba said the investigation was nearing its conclusion.

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“It has been established that the incident involving the South African Airways flight to Brussels was reportable to both the SA Civil Aviation Authority, as well as the accident and incident investigations division.

“A preliminary assessment indicated SAA did not report the incident to Sacaa within the stipulated timelines.”

A final report was being compiled to outline full findings and recommendations.

As to what the consequences for SAA and the crew might be, Ledwaba said that “the content of the report, outlining the investigation conducted and findings, will serve as a guide on the appropriate enforcement action to be considered”.

At SAA, business rescue practitioner spokeswoman Louise Brugman said there would be no comment until the final report was issued.

The “Alpha Floor” event that occurred on SA 4272 just after it took off from OR International Airport to Brussels, was allegedly the consequence of the flight deck not completing a check-list properly.

The check-list clearly instructs crew to cross-check flight system input weight against load-sheets to determine accuracy of these.

In a previous report, an SAA pilot confirmed that a 90-ton weight discrepancy occurs, albeit rarely, on the flight management system of Airbus A340-600 aircraft.

This is the check-list red flag that, had procedure been correctly followed, meant the entire incident could have been avoided, the pilot said.

There was also a noise abatement regulation transgression that occurred on departure back to Johannesburg, but at this stage the scope or existence of any kind of SAA internal investigation remains a mystery.

news@citizen.co.za