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AIR SAFETY ANALYSIS

Flight SA9053: Yet another near-fatal incident uncovered at SAA

Flight SA9053: Yet another near-fatal incident uncovered at SAA
(Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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.

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. BM/DM

Guy Leitch is publisher and editor at SA Flyer Magazine

Update on 8 July, 2022: See a Right of Reply to this article here:

 

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Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Glyn Morgan says:

    I will never fly SAA again. Should be disbanded before something really bad happens.

  • Manfred Hasewinkel says:

    I guess they didn’t want to attract attention by landing in Gaborone. On the other hand, where is the weather data to back up the argument? No consequences for the ‘alpha floor incident’ certainly rile. I will rather avoid to fly SAA.

  • Bee Man says:

    With an extensive background in flight safety and accident investigation I can only state the the warning signs for a pending major disaster are clearly evident. Fly with this airline at your own risk.

  • Ian Gwilt says:

    time to give up my voyager card
    I vowed never to fly with them again, seems decision vindicated

  • Patrick O'Shea says:

    I wonder how many others have been covered up. The passengers should sue the captain for criminal endangerment.

  • Carsten Rasch says:

    It’s unfair to use the Helderberg as an example of failed safety, when it is known that there was political interference with carrying certain restricted freight, which apparently was the cause for the fire that started on board. As far as I know the Captain refused to sign off on it, but was forced to do so.

  • Bernard McGivern says:

    Shocking reading, what respones if any has SAA made to this appalling and irresponsible behavior in putting people’s lives at risk?

  • Y Cato says:

    Well, I’ll certainly not fly with SAA again, but it should be fine for ANC caders

  • Rod H MacLeod says:

    We never fly SAA as we know someone who works at Technical. A pending disaster is apparently not about if but when.

  • Laurence Erasmus says:

    ANC cadre deployment will inevitably kill innocent people using SAA. It’s just a matter of time not if!

  • Patrick Devine says:

    ‘Never FlySAA’ as the saying goes.

    Any airline that chooses pilots based on their skin colour……

  • Willem Boshoff says:

    In what universe do you make a pilot with two major fails the head of training? Incomprehensible.

  • Nick Robert says:

    Fairly clear that I won’t be using this flight platform for any trips!!

  • Gerrie Pretorius Pretorius says:

    AA and cadre deployment – what do you expect?

  • Hermann Funk says:

    Why has that airline not been grounded as it was done with Comair(?) earlier?

  • Lesley Young says:

    In the ‘80s 2 trainee pilots went to New Zealand to be trained. They both failed as they had no understanding or grasp of the concept of ‘attitude’. Makes you wonder!

  • Gerrit van Wyk says:

    SAA will not even get a sniff of my shoes!

  • Rehana Moola says:

    Let politicians fly on SAA flights

  • Peter Streng says:

    This is AA /EE at its most reckless.
    cANCer is on record (vide Gwede M) saying that they will continue cadre deployment and transformation regardless of the consequences. Pure anti-white action. And looks what happening at Eskom… who are they bringing back to mentor incompetent?

  • Nicol Mentz says:

    Accidents don’t just happen. There is normally an accumulation of incidences and oversights. The warning signs are there. Please CAA this is not a game. This is life or death, one of your family members could be on that plane.
    This is the same problems faced in hospitals, eskom and state run institutions.

  • jeff katz says:

    I’m pinching myself to ensure this is not a nightmare. I really don’t believe what I am reading. Fortunately I’m unaffected, I WILL NEVER fly SAA . Pity those that do

  • Christopher Campbell says:

    Close the airline down. CAA should be acting on these reports of poor maintenance, endangering lives by taking unnecessary risks and even trying to hush them up.

  • Christopher Campbell says:

    Why does the CAA report say 1+1 for number of crew and passengers and both were South African? SAA say there were 184 passengers and 25 crew – and surely they weren’t all South Africans. The CAA should be asking more questions.

  • Cunningham Ngcukana says:

    Given the level of corruption; mismanagement; negligence and incompetence at SAA and SAA Technicals since 1994 it has been a matter of fortune that we have not seen planes of the SAA tumbling from the air and killing hundreds of passengers. It was worse during the Zuma years as the focus was on the looting and risking passenger lives. One remembers saying to Vavi a few years ago that we have a disaster waiting to happen at SAA and one fears the incompetence of the NPA and Hawks as nobody would be held accountable. We have one of the most opaque transactions that have brought SAA into the air and its financial health is not understood and Pravin Gordhan hides behind the need to protect the transaction and he does not care a hoot about passengers and points a middle finger like state capture days to parliament on this foggy deal with Takatso. Anything happening to an SAA flight he must be criminally held liable.
    In fact parliament is failing in its duty to ground SAA until its financial health is disclosed and whether it has a future. Treasury has distanced itself from the smelly deal. When you do not have an independent regulatory body for the airlines you will have dangerous airlines in our skies. We must not hope for any transparency from the opaque new dawn.

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