Comair operated British Airways plane forced to turn back to Joburg after tail hits runway

Comair has confirmed that a British Airways plane heading from Johannesburg to Mauritius was forced to turn back mid-flight, after a ‘technical problem’.

The Comair Boeing 737-800 flight which had 152 passengers and 6 crew members onboard departed Johannesburg on Tuesday when the problem forced the pilots to ground the plane about 85 minutes after departure.

Passengers reported the crew had indicated that the aircraft’s tail might have contacted the runway surface on departure.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Johannesburg for about 2.5 hours, then departed again for the flight as MN-399A.

Comair spokesperson Stephen Forbes confirmed the incident.

“We can confirm a tail scrape occurred on take-off when on this morning’s (19 April) British Airways (operated by Comair) flight from Johannesburg to Mauritius. After returning to base for a technical check, the passengers remained on board and the aircraft continued its flight to Mauritius as normal.”

“The safety of our personnel and customers remains our foremost priority,” Forbes said.

Last month, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) lifted a 5-day suspension on Comair, which operates the local British Airways and low-cost carrier Kulula.com.

The SACAA had suspended Comair’s Air Operator Certificate (AOC) over safety-related issues, and was initially meant to last for 24 hours.

The suspension caused chaos as flights on other airlines were fully booked and if there were available seats, passengers had to fork out far more money than usual due to the demand.

The suspension came after a British Airways flight experienced technical problems with its landing gear.

The flight, which was travelling from Gqeberha to Cape Town, had trouble landing at an airport, resulting in a 15-minute delay.

Aviation safety in South Africa has been in the spotlight recently following a number of incidents related to aircraft maintenance.

Earlier this month, FlySafair was also grounded one of its commercial aircraft to investigate a technical error after having to divert two flights on 30 March and 5 April.

ALSO READ: Load shedding: 101 Cold, dark winter days ahead