SAA AND FLYSAFAIR PLANES GROUNDED AFTER CLASH OF WINGS IN PARKING INCIDENT

A GROUND incident on Friday evening at Oliver Tambo International Airport resulted in the loss of two flights capacity as the holiday season warms up. In a statement, SAA confirmed that an SAA Airbus A320 was being towed from the airport ramp to the maintenance facility when the tow bar of a tow truck broke and caused the aircraft to veer off and hit a parked FlySafair aircraft. The SAA wing tip and the FlySafair empennage section was damaged. SAA Executive Chairperson and chief executive Professor John Lamola, said: “This is truly an unfortunate development as this takes out the seat capacity of two aircraft, an SAA A320 and a FlySafair B737, out of the market at a time when our passengers are experiencing higher ticket prices due to limited aircraft availability on our domestic market. My colleague at FlySafair and I are committed to taking extraordinary steps at ensuring that both the aircraft are brought back to service as soon as possible.” As a result of the incident, SA357/372 from Johannesburg to Cape Town was cancelled and customers were accommodated on SA359/374. Further, SA323/334 has been upgraded to operate A333 and the new estimated departure time for SA334 is 13h05 local time, due to rotation. The SAA aircraft is out of operation and the impact of the wing is being assessed. “Both the South African Civil Aviation Authority and the European Aviation Safety Agency have been notified. The aircraft will only return to operations once the airline is satisfied of its airworthiness," spokesperson

Vimla Maistry said in a statement. No passengers were on-board either aircraft at the time of the accident. |