Kwa Zulu Natal airborne relief flights

In his address to the nation on Monday 19 July President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke about the continued riots, lawlessness and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The unrest appears to have been driven by some of former president Jacob Zuma’s sympathisers, who have been calling for his release from the Estcourt Correctional Centre. He was taken into custody after the Constitutional Court sentenced him to 15 months behind bars for failing to abide by an order to give evidence before the Zondo Commission.

The DA said “little about Ramaphosa’s address offered anything new, in terms of measures to curb the violence, looting and destruction of property. In short, it was clear that the president and his government have no real plan and that citizens will have to face the mobs of rioters and looters entirely on their own,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said. “Our country is literally burning; many South Africans have lost everything they had to the looters, whilst thousands of jobs have been lost. We needed a strong statement of action but instead, we simply got more of the platitudes that this Presidency has become known for”. The DA claimed the violence had escalated because law enforcement agencies had failed to take control early on when things started getting out of hand.

African Pilot seldom becomes involved in South African politics, but when one watches the lawless destruction of shopping centres, warehouses, roads, trucks and infrastructure this becomes everyone’s business. How long does this go on and become an aviation risk as well? I do not pretend to have all the answers, but if something is not urgently done to stabilise our country will continue to see compete anarchy and mass killings of innocent people. In a later address Ramaphosa admitted that the South African security services were caught not being able to control the situation and he did not use the word ‘attempted coup’, there was no doubt that this well-orchestrated week of violence has been simmering for many years.

However, the aviation sector via an initiative by the Commercial Aviation Association of Southern Africa (CAASA) via the KZN Air Fund and the relief mission have enabled the communication and co-ordination of industries air assets to enable the movement of emergency medical and food supplies to various disaster struck destinations within the province. Starlite Aviation at Virginia Airport has been a staging point for many mercy missions, linking with Margate and Richards Bay Airport. King Shaka International Airport has been a staging point for the larger aircraft.

Many selfless individuals and companies have been flying missions carrying essential emergency goods such as baby formulae, chronic medications, vital emergency rations as well as evacuating the sick and elderly. This was at its height while the major roads were closed and the alternate supply chains had not been re-established. The N3 between Johannesburg and Durban re-opening and the community-based security initiatives, along with mobilising the NGOs and supply chains for unaffected parts of the country are now in full swing and ramping up.

CAASA along with many volunteers have assisted in numerous food movements by small aircraft of which 73 had been recorded by early morning on 19 July 2021. They concentrated on small packages and essential emergency items hence the tonnage was not huge. The focus was on efficiency and targeted deliveries of aid.

Virginia Airport centre of Durban operations

As South African aviation rallied together Virginia Airport became a hive of activity as many private and corporate aircraft flew supplies to Durban and evacuated people out of the burning city. By mid-week the terminal was filled with passengers with their suitcases and some with their pets waiting for their charter flights away from Durban. The first two days of the airlift saw a steady stream of Cessna Caravans, Beechcraft King Airs, Pilatus PC-12s and many smaller privately owned aircraft and helicopters arrive with essential aid, whilst passengers to safer destinations. Starlite Aviation and other helicopter operators were seen taking people to King Shaka International Airport for them to take scheduled flights away from Durban.

All aircraft that could be tracked were co-ordinated Flight Radar 24 to ensure their safe return to base monitored in collaboration with Santjie White. All of this was put into action and managed by the CAASA team of Leon Dillman (CEO), Kevin Storie (COO), Louise Olckers (General Manager) office manager Sam Keddle. CAASA also organised a KZN Air Relief Fund to raise money for those affected by the unrest. The fund is being utilised for the transport of emergency goods and services. If people were able to assist, they were asked to contact Louise Olckers by e-mail: gm@caasa.co.za

For many years Virginia Airport has been threatened with closure by the local municipality. However, the KZN airlift has shown that this key airport is vital to the city.

Apart from the many relief flights, the airport was used extensively by the South African Air Force, the South African Police, medical services, charity organisations and security companies. The fact that Virginia Airport is situated centrally to the city of Durban, all that is required is a commitment to upgrade terminal building and lengthen the runway southwards towards to the city by about 200 metres.

Airlink, Santaco, Shoprite and HSF provide relief for Pietermaritzburg Photography by Xongani Maluleka.

The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) together with local airline, Airlink, supermarket chain, Shoprite and global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) are joining forces to provide vital relief, supplies and support in cleaning up Pietermaritzburg after the looting and civil unrest that has devastated the city and surrounding communities over the past week. Together they will provide and safely transport over 2,000 food packages and provisions to people who are currently without any food after shops in the city and surrounds were pillaged. A team of 85 volunteers from Airlink and HSF will fly to Pietermaritzburg on Sunday (Nelson Mandela International Day) where Santaco-affiliated minibus taxis will ferry them to those areas in most need of support. Relief supplies and food packages were donated by Airlink, HSF, their respective staff and matched with generous contributions from Shoprite.

Airlink has been flying urgently needed medicine and other supplies to the city since its airport was reopened on the Wednesday. It has also helped several people stranded in Pietermaritzburg return to their homes in other parts of the country after the main freeway out of the city was closed. Airlink is also supporting wider relief efforts, which has included the transportation of more than 50 tons of relief for Durban and Johannesburg.

Comair Flight Services KZN rescue efforts By Justin Reeves

Initially CFS was contacted by numerous clients asking to be evacuated from various KZN towns and cities, as they were fearing for their safety as the violence escalated. Several people-chartered aircraft from CFS and fled their KZN homes, mostly to Johannesburg and Cape Town. The situation escalated quickly and soon people were beginning to ask if we could bring essential cargo (mostly food and necessities) to KZN when we flew empty from Johannesburg to KZN to collect people to be evacuated, so we would fly freight to KZN and bring people back.

As the violence eventually subsided the requests to evacuate stopped, but the requests for essential cargo kept rising as reality set in and it became clear that people in KZN had no means of purchasing the everyday essentials that we all take for granted. I spoke with people who told me that family of theirs in the Underberg area drove to Kokstad for over one and a half hours to buy food, only to be turned away by shopkeepers who were only selling to residents of their own town who could provide proof of residence. Another person in Richards Bay stood in three-kilometre queues for more than five hours to purchase fuel since vehicles were running out of fuel in the queues and drivers were helping each other by towing the car behind them to the fuel station.

By this time several organisations and individuals had started organising themselves to get relief aid to affected communities. I initially started a WhatsApp group amongst a few of the charter operators at Lanseria to streamline requests for aircraft. After CAASA called an emergency online meeting with its members and various stakeholders in our industry, that WhatsApp group was moved to Telegram and has 147 members at the time of writing this note. It included members of our regulator and Santjie White who has (as usual) working long hours flight following various aircraft flying essential cargo all over KZN.

I live in Midstream Estate and on the morning of Sunday 18 July I spoke with the management of the local Midstream Superspar and they kindly agreed to serve as a central drop-off point for anyone wanting to donate food, toiletries, plasters, etc. for this initiative. Later that same morning I posted on our estate’s Facebook pages appealing for residents of the estate to donate essential goods and that CFS would ensure the donated goods reached the most affected and remote communities. By Monday evening we had collected nearly 1.7 tons of supplies from the generous estate residents alone.

In the meantime, I had asked our clients who own aircraft managed by CFS if they would be willing to donate hours on their aircraft if CFS would pick up the variable costs, such as fuel, airport and navigation fees and handling, but that CFS would also provide the necessary crew and flight support for these flights. A few of our generous aircraft owners responded positively and offered the use of their aircraft at no charge.

It ss hard to say exactly how much CFS contributed, as it was all a team effort between CFS, CAASA, private individuals, and at times we were so snowed under that if someone called with a 10-ton donation Louise (CAASA) simply married them up with someone who had a half-empty truck and they would sort out their own logistics. The communications and logistical support received from CAASA was key to the success of this initiative and I must give huge thanks to Louise and the rest of the CAASA team, who also contributed much needed essential goods from their KZN Air Fund towards one of our flights.

We have since determined that the urgency of getting supplies delivered to KZN by air, as well as the risk of delivering by road have decreased to a point where we can now send our remaining donations by road, which is a much more cost efficient and effective way of having supplies delivered.The supply chain to major centres such as Durban and Richards Bay have started filling the supermarkets and it makes much more sense to donate money to the many wonderful NPO’s and charity organisations in KZN to distribute it by road to the outlying areas rather than to waste money on road or air transport. We are so thankful and grateful for the countless people who dedicated their time, money and resources to this initiative. The unconditional kindness that I have witnessed over the past two weeks have completely disproven all the stereotypes and reports of widespread racism in South Africa and it has done a lot to restore my faith in our nation.

Cemair

CEO Miles van der Molen told me that Cemair also quickly offered space on its scheduled flights to fly essential supplies to King Shaka International Airports as well as to Margate Airport. Ashaful Aid an International Humanitarian organisation provided numerous food parcels that were then transported by the airline free of charge.

ExecuJet Africa relief flights

Following the recent unrest and riots in the Kwa Zulu Natal province, ExecuJet Africa assisted with relief charter flights to fly passengers and their families out of Durban. ExecuJet also offered empty charter sectors out of our Cape Town and Lanseria facilities for transportation of the much-needed essential supplies to the affected areas within the province. As part of the Luxaviation Group, ExecuJet is based in South Africa at Lanseria International Airport near Johannesburg and at Cape Town International Airport, Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, as well as Seychelles.

Going forward

As the road infrastructure with larger capacity mobilises fully, the aviation initiative will start slowing down only to move to vital requirements. However, we will remain vigilant and on standby if the situations escalate once more. The present focus now moves to outlying areas that are difficult to get to by road as and when the need arises.

CAASA compliments the industry pilots and other role players with their initiatives that came together to aid our fellow South Africans. People like Santjie White, ex ARCC Chief, made sure each of our aircraft were flight followed and confirmed when the pilots, some fatigued from doing so much flying, landed safely at their destinations. Companies such as Starlite Aviation, Comair Flight Services (CFS), NAC, Cemair, Absolute Aviation and ExecuJet, to name a mere few, have been involved in sponsoring pilots, providing charters or providing space on aircraft to move goods. The evacuation of people and animals via either paid for or sponsored flights has been inspiring. It is at times like these that we see the true grit of our aviators and where their hearts are. They are South Africans and look after their own. The absence of government assistance was once again noted and the help of each citizen surely made the difference in these difficult times.

African Pilot would like to sincerely thank each and every pilot, aircraft owner and all the relief organisations that became involved showing that aviation is the fastest and most important method of dealing with this type of situation.