Broken fire engine halts two flights

Scores of passengers flying between Mthatha and Johannesburg were stuck at airports in the two cities on Monday, apparently because of a broken fire engine at Mthatha Airport.

Passengers at OR Tambo International Airport hoping to travel to Mthatha on Monday afternoon had to sleep over in Johannesburg as flights were cancelled at the last hour.

In Mthatha, passengers travelling to Johannesburg also had to kick their heels for the night as no flights could land or leave until yesterday morning.

Passengers told the Daily Dispatch that they were told the reason flights could not land was a broken fire engine and insufficient lighting on the Mthatha runway.

No response to questions sent to Airlink’s Kari Murray had been received at the time of writing. Frustrated passenger Yvette Rennie, who was stuck at OR Tambo, said it was a chaotic scene as the airline could not give them answers.

“Everyone was screaming but they could not give us answers. People didn’t have anywhere to go.

“The airline said it was not their fault but it was the airport’s fault so they could not reimburse us.

“We had to pay for double bookings,” Rennie said.

Samson Divhula, a statistician for StatsSA due to carry out a survey on living conditions in the OR Tambo district, said he slept at OR Tambo airport.

Divhula believed the woes of Mthatha Airport were the result of “poor management”.

“Train your managers to plan ahead and start with the end in mind when you do your project. Don’t wait until it’s too late to implement your decisions.

“There was a problem yesterday and even this morning the problem was not solved. They should have solved the problem before they went to sleep last night. Managers must manage, let’s do our work,” he said.

Divhula said despite their protestations Airlink officials would not “budge” on insisting the fault was with Mthatha Airport.

DA chief whip in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality Bandile Mbewu was on his way back from Gauteng with his wheelchair-bound father-in-law.

“We are very disappointed. This airport is supposed to have been completed long ago. They are failing us a lot, they have no vision.

“If the government is failing people at national , what do you expect at local level?”

Mthatha Airport manager Anderson Maduneni said he’d been on leave for the past week.

KSD spokesman Sonwabo Mampoza confirmed that municipality had sent fire engines to the airport on Monday.

“We received a request for a fire engine, and we immediately sent one to the airport. It was not the first that we have assisted when they had problems. We do so at all times.

“When there is a problem with the airport’s fire engine we send ours.”

But he refused to say what time the call had come or what time the fire engine had been dispatched.

Provincial transport spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca said one of the main factors that exacerbated the issue was that Mthatha Airport’s licence only allowed flights to land during the daytime.

“One of the contributing factors is that our licence does not allow us to land aircraft when it is dark.

“One of the fire engines is being fixed in town, another is being repaired at the airport. There is an arrangement with the municipality that whenever our fire engines have a problem, the municipality sends theirs.”

Regarding complaints about poor lighting, Kumbaca said the head of the department was in discussions with the national department of transport to resolve the issue.

“The issue of the lights is frustrating our progress in changing the status of our licence.

“We would want to be able to land flights at night as well,” said Kumbaca.

He said the terminal building under construction would be completed next month. — abongilem@dispatch.co.za / loyisom@dispatch.co.za