Foreigners on ‘high risk’ flights stuck in planes on runways

More than 20 international flights from “high risk countries” were isolated at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, as well as Cape Town and Durban, yesterday – and foreigners on board were not allowed to disembark. Only South Africans were permitted to leave the planes.

All local citizens were, however, given a thorough medical and assessment screening for coronavirus and then put into quarantine or sent for self-isolation.

The lockdown was in terms of regulations issued by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula under the declaration of national disaster proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday.

Mbalula said the restrictions on the flights and the “warm bodies” aboard them were applied because the flights had left their points of departure before the South African notification was sent to them.

Mbalula dismissed as “fake news” suggestions that airports in the country were closed … but he said a decision to close them was an option which might be considered by the “national command council” in future. The travel restrictions will see “foreign nationals from high risk countries” prevented from disembarking the aircraft. They will be “sent back to their own countries”, Mbalula said in a briefing at OR Tambo yesterday.

“Inbound crew will be screened and quarantined,” said the restrictions.

Countries which are deemed as high risk include South Korea, Italy, Spain, Iran, Germany, United States of America, United Kingdom, China and France.

Mbalula said the bans on foreigners setting foot on SA soil also applied to travellers in transit to other countries, including Namibia and Mozambique.

He also said that any chartered flights would have to operate from international airports to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Airports Company of SA CEO Mpumi Mpofu said the process involved the deployment of police officers to ensure people did not try to “escape” from what needed to be done in terms of screening and assessment.

Air Traffic and Navigation Systems CEO Thomas Kgokolo stressed that no flights had been “grounded” and that operations were normal, other than that aircraft and their passengers had to comply with the regulations. He said no aircraft which had filed flights plans had been refused access to South African airspace.

Mpofu said something similar and stressed that SA’s airports were still open to, and accepting landings and takeoffs from flights to countries not on the “high risk” list.

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