Panic aboard SAA flights

schumi

schumi

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Johannesburg - Passengers on two separate SAA flights were left anxious and concerned after both flights experienced mechanical problems.

A flight from New York’s JFK Airport had to turn back an hour into its journey to South Africa due to a flap malfunction on one of the wings on Saturday night, while another one bound for Washington was delayed for 24 hours in Accra, Ghana, on Friday after an engine failed to restart.

Several passengers on the flight from New York said it was announced to the cabin that a vast quantity of fuel, costing about a million rand, had to be dumped while the plane was on its way back to the airport.

A passenger who asked to remain anonymous for professional reasons said there was “a wing failure” and passengers were told that it was too dangerous to fly over the Atlantic Ocean with the plane in this condition.

That announcement was made an hour into their flight and they had to be airborne for another hour while the fuel was being dumped.

“The pilot was amazing. He saved our lives. He and the crew kept everyone calm and they were so helpful,” the passenger said.
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More at: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/panic-aboard-saa-flights-2095562
 
Considering this country's track record with the lack of maintenance...I'll be avoiding SAA like the plague.

(Yeah, I know they may have awesome engineers / aviation technicians, etc or whatever, but no thanks. Rather paranoid than possibly injured / dead somewhere down the line. [Which, incidentally, goes for a number of airlines with "bad" track records.])
 
A flight from New York’s JFK Airport had to turn back an hour into its journey to South Africa due to a flap malfunction
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Some of the other airlines have fixed wing aircraft .... the wings dont flap anymore. :)
 
Have been avoiding SAA since early 2000s. Even mechanics working there told me they won't fly with SAA.
 
Severe overreaction to something that happens daily. Hydraulic cylinders fail. Has nothing to do with maintenance (or lack thereof). Lol at the pilot "saved our lives". Idiot passenger doesn't realize his/her life is in the pilots hands from the moment the chocks are removed and the a/c pushes back.
 
Oppiekoffie said:
Have been avoiding SAA since early 2000s. Even mechanics working there told me they won't fly with SAA.
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I havent flown SAA since the whole pilot based on race issue - and of course, with Dudu Myeni at the helm, as a matter of principle I refuse to support SAA or Mango for that matter.

Choice is a wonderful thing
 
The_Librarian said:
...and the situation will only get worse.
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It will? Why? The airline has been floundering financially for years yet they have maintained a good safety record thanks to sound technical management. There's no evidence they're compromising safety which if they did we'd find out as authorities in other countries would ban. Sure, boycott them for whatever reasons but not safety. Their aircraft aren't falling out the sky like we see with many airlines around the globe
 
You need to panic when an airline just turns back to the departure airport, lands and does maintenance on the apron to an engine without letting the passengers off, and then takes of again all the time not informing the passengers about anything that is going on...

SAA has not started to do this yet and is still a pretty professional outfit so why the panic headline?
 
Why would the pilot tell the pasangers that the dumped fuel is worth around a million rand, just find it a bit strange?
 
:erm: And just last night I had a marathon session watching 6 hours of Air Crash Investigations on the PVR. One of them was United 173 crashing in Portland suburbs after running out of fuel.
 
R13... said:
It will? Why? The airline has been floundering financially for years yet they have maintained a good safety record thanks to sound technical management. There's no evidence they're compromising safety which if they did we'd find out as authorities in other countries would ban. Sure, boycott them for whatever reasons but not safety. Their aircraft aren't falling out the sky like we see with many airlines around the globe
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The problem is, do they get the correct parts? How is that maintenance done. Yes, bad parts, bad workmanship may last for a while. But at some point it will fail. I've seen this air crash stuff on Natgeo(mentioned ealier) Some airline bought parts that weren't the actual authorised parts. Part failed, plane down. you don't know this stuff until something bad happens. Thats the problem.
 
Suspect99 said:
How much money do they make per flight if the fuel they dumped is a million rand?
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Rounded off for ease and guesstimate avg airfare (disregarding taxes): 300 passengers x R10000 average airfare = R3 million. But paying for the aircraft, staff, apron fees and maintenance would be huge expenses, so it's very hard to know exactly the profit.
 
garp said:
Rounded off for ease and guesstimate avg airfare (disregarding taxes): 300 passengers x R10000 average airfare = R3 million. But paying for the aircraft, staff, apron fees and maintenance would be huge expenses, so it's very hard to know exactly the profit.
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And thats verbatum what Dudu Myeni said

ba dum tishhhhhhhh
 
Arthur said:
:erm: And just last night I had a marathon session watching 6 hours of Air Crash Investigations on the PVR. One of them was United 173 crashing in Portland suburbs after running out of fuel.
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UA173 crashed because the crew failed to conduct their CRM correctly. The consequance of this poor management was fuel starvation, which resulted in loss of power to both engines on final approach.

Not really relevant to this sensationalist non-event.
 
204,500 litres full tanks.

265t max take off weight
251t max landing weight

That's a 14t difference. Obviously the plane won't be at max take off or landing weight, but the difference is 14t so in theory only up to 17 000 litres must be dumped, roughly R120k worth. So R200k or less. Never R1 mil.
 
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