ANALYSIS
By Guy Leitch
A South African Airways (SAA) plane (file photo). |
Flight SA9053, which was a passenger flight from Accra, Ghana, to Johannesburg, had water in its fuel, which could have caused both engines to flame out and crash. It should have been diverted, but wasn't.
Over its 88-year history, SAA has been one of the more
dangerous airlines in the world. Compared to Qantas with its famous (but
spurious) claim never to have written off an airliner, let alone killed a
passenger, SAA has had a fearful toll of fatal crashes. Think back to the
Helderberg disaster off Mauritius; the Boeing 707 that crashed at Windhoek; and
barely a year before that, the Viscount Rietbok that crashed into the sea off
East London.
After the Helderberg disaster, the airline put in a marathon
effort to improve safety and its flight operations department came to be seen
as one of the best in the world. But now, as SAA V2.0, the flight operations
department is quietly accumulating blunders. As isolated incidents, these
blunders may not be significant, but together they pile up to the moment when the
airline’s luck runs out.
There have been a number of warning signs. A year ago there
was the “alpha floor incident” of the vaccine stunt flight when the Airbus
autopilot had to take over to prevent a basic pilot error from fatally
scribbling the huge A340 Airbus across Boksburg. This flight was under the
command of the chief pilot, captain Vusi Khumalo.
Now information of another very serious incident that was
quietly buried suggests that SAA has done it again. Flight SA052 flew from
Johannesburg to Accra, Ghana, on 14 April. When the plane was refuelled in
Accra, the engines would not start. Investigation revealed water in the fuel.
The flight was delayed until 3.20pm the following day, when
the Airbus departed from Accra, operating under the callsign SA9053, the prefix
indicating that it was now a non-passenger carrying ferry flight.
Nevertheless, SAA has now confirmed that the Airbus was
carrying 184 passengers and 25 crew plus cargo, and under the command of the
same captain Khumalo. After having taken a large golden parachute as chief
pilot from SAA in the wake of the Brussels flight, Khumalo was taken back as
the head of training, despite having no training qualifications.
With its 209 passengers and crew, Flight SA905 was over the
Kalahari when an engine reportedly began surging and stalled. The aircraft
descended from 41,000ft to 19,000ft and limped into Johannesburg with one
engine at idle.
Once the passengers, luggage and cargo were offloaded, the
aircraft was towed to the South African Airways Technical for further
investigation. Significant water contamination of the fuel system and engines
was found.
This is a serious incident. Water in the fuel could have
caused both engines to flame out and so the crew should have immediately
diverted to the nearest suitable airport, probably Gaborone. The South African
Civil Aviation Authority’s (Sacaa) incident report does, however, say that
there was a thunderstorm at Gaborone and so the Airbus continued to
Johannesburg, with a known problem of fuel contamination and one engine
stalled.
SAA seems to have attempted a cover-up as it was only on 25
April 2022 that Sacaa came to learn of this incident due to a report from the
Ghanaian Civil Aviation Authority.
There were no repercussions to the near-disaster of the
alpha floor incident and it is a worrying sign that the airline appears to be
trying to duck the latest incident. There are already questions about pilot
standards at SAA. Unless the airline gets lucky, the odds are stacking up that
a serious crash is imminent. -DM
0 comments:
Post a Comment