SAA must not get special treatment

How close did a South African Airways Airbus (SAA) A340-600 come to crashing just after midnight on 25 February after taking off from OR Tambo Airport in Joburg, on its mercy mission to collect South Africa’s first batch of vaccines?

Business rescue practitioners at the bankrupt airline have tried to pour cold water over media and social media reports about the incident, while the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) maintains it has done everything by the aviation safety book.

Yet, the massive plane was apparently ultimately “rescued” by an onboard automatic safety system which kicked in when it determined the aircraft was about to stall.

The system automatically increased power and put the plane’s nose into a downward position for a short period, to allow it to regain airspeed and to recover. The question is how the pilots got into the situation in the first place.

Reports claim they miscalculated the take-off weight of the A340 and, therefore, its take-off speed. Just a week before the flight, Sacaa had mandated extra training for the flight crew, who had done no flying during the Covid lockdowns.

Approvals to fly were only granted shortly before the flight. In addition, the incident was reported to the Sacaa almost three weeks after it happened and not within the legally mandatory period of three days.

Through all this, Sacaa maintains it has not given SAA special treatment … yet there has been no indication of what action, if any, is being taken about the late reporting.

This is a very serious incident and could batter what little remains of SAA’s integrity. It needs to be taken seriously by the Sacaa and there must be consequences if there are breaches of procedures.

None of those involve can play with the lives of South Africans – whether on the ground or in the air.

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