Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Parents furious after kids’ marathon flight
SAA says it attempted to let them know plane had been diverted
THE frantic parents of two young girls whose flight from Cape Town to Joburg ended up taking 18 hours this week have told of their fears after South African Airways allegedly failed to keep them updated about a plane’s diversion to Durban.
The children, aged 10 and 7, were flying as unaccompanied minors after visiting their father, Paul Whittaker, in Cape Town. They were returning to their mother, Michelle Whittaker, in Joburg, when their flight was diverted to Durban, because of a partial closure at OR Tambo International Airport after a plane crash-landed.
The girls ended up sleeping in a business class lounge at King Shaka International Airport in Durban.
The Whittakers have slammed the airline’s handling of the situation, although SAA has countered that it did try to contact the mother and father respectively at different times during Monday night.
Paul Whittaker said the girls were handed to SAA officials around 12.40pm on Monday, to board a 1.15pm flight.
But an hour after their expected arrival time, their mother still hadn’t seen then.
Michelle Whittaker said she waited for a while because she knew it takes time for passengers to disembark. “But slowly I lost my patience. I called my husband to find out where my daughters were and then called SAA to find out what was going on. I was told that there were flight delays, but they had no answers as to why the flights were delayed.”
At 6pm she learnt the flight was further delayed and said the next time she heard from SAA was at 10pm.
“I was told that my daugh- ters were now in Durban as their flight to Joburg had been diverted due to bad weather.”
They were then told they had to spend the night there since there were no other flights to Joburg that night. They were forced to sleep in SAA’s Business Class Lounge, Michelle said, because the hotel accommodation “was given to cabin crew instead of the passengers”.
“I heard from my daughters at 2am again and they said they had been waiting for hotel vouchers. They didn’t even offer any blankets to passengers, so my oldest daughter took off her jacket and gave it to her younger sister to keep warm during the night.”
The girls arrived in Joburg at 7am on Tuesday.
The girls’ father slammed the “inconsistent” information from SAA, saying he learnt at 1.30am on Tuesday that they would sleep at a hotel. In fact, they never got to the hotel.
“Throughout that time SAA did not contact us to let us know where the girls were or consult us about where the girls would be moved to. They also made no effort to find alternative flights for them,” he said.
Asked to comment, Colin Naidoo, spokesman for Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) at King Shaka Airport, said the issue was an SAA one, and that he could not comment.
“The business lounges at airports are managed by the airlines. The airline concerned will have to comment on this incident.”
SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said various flights to OR Tambo were affected by a BA Comair plane crash-landing.
The aircraft carrying the girls was placed in a holding pattern over OR Tambo, then diverted to Durban.
“Factors taken into account included the availability of fuel to sustain the flight in a holding pattern for an extended period of time.
“On arriving in Durban the aircraft had to be inspected and certified as airworthy after it had sustained a lightning strike. The process to get quali- fied personnel to certify the aircraft took longer than had been anticipated.”
Tlali said passengers disembarked and were offered meal vouchers. The girls were in the care of SAA crew throughout.
“Our records reflect that SAA made efforts to get in touch with the parents of the minors. A call was made to the mother of the unaccompanied minors at about 7pm which went to voicemail.
An attempt was made later to get hold of the father who was contacted at approximately 11pm.”
On alternative accommodation for passengers, Tlali said the time they would have spent in a hotel was too short to be practical.
“The only option that was available was to accommodate passengers, to the extent possible, in our lounge.
“The unaccompanied minors were accommodated in
‘sAA did not
the children’s section of the lounge where they slept.
“All passengers departed from Durban to Joburg in the morning of the following day.”
He said SAA “deeply regrets” the incident, and was investigating whether or not all proper procedures were fol- lowed. Communication with parents of the unaccompanied minors could been handled more efficiently.
Michelle Whittaker said her daughters were handed letters of apology for the delay, and were given 25 percent off their next SAA flight.