Johannesburg - Over the past few days, thousands of commuters have been left frustrated because of control-tower equipment failure at OR Tambo International.
Confusion was rife as some commuters were told the delays were caused by air traffic control staff striking.
Nathan Doughty who was travelling to London on Wednesday posted on Facebook: “So we are now delayed by an hour. Still sitting at the gate. Our pilot reckons this is due to ‘local politics’.”
On Wednesday, commuter @AFP_1st asked: “@Airports_ZA a passenger just informed me that the air controllers are on strike at or Tambo. Is this correct?”
Expresso presenter @KatlegoMaboe, who was also caught up in the chaos, tweeted: “Flight delayed by 1h30mins because of air traffic control strike @ortambo_int.”
Tweeting from Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday was @ericvandenberg4, who said: “Flight out of Cape Town delayed indefinitely due to air traffic controllers strike at @ortambo_int.”
Later, @ericvandenberg4 clarified his initial uncertainty: “Ok now they say no strike but a systems failure where @ortambo_int lost all contact with aircraft. It’s being investigated.”
But according to Airports Company South Africa, planes were grounded and delays implemented because Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) experienced a technical malfunction that interrupted communication between air traffic controllers at the Johannesburg Air Traffic Control Centre at OR Tambo and the crew on flights on Monday.
“This situation was recovered within 25 minutes and all operations returned to normal. During a review of the communications failure on Wednesday, it became evident that further risk mitigations required to be implemented,” it said.
In order to maintain the safety standards expected in the aviation industry and from ATNS, “air traffic rates to and from the airport and in the airspace have been limited temporarily while technical risks are mitigated”.
“The unfortunate result of this necessary safety intervention is the delays currently being experienced by the airspace users, OR Tambo International.”
ATNS was working to “to normalise the situation and restore the capacity for the airport and airspace.
The airport said it was not aware of any industrial action.
Commuters took to social media to complain about the delays.
Taryn Cumming, who was travelling from Durban to Joburg posted on the OR Tambo International Facebook page: “Someone between you and Mango needs to take responsibility with the delay.”
She had sat on a “hot plane” for two hours at King Shaka International in Durban.
“This is totally unacceptable… Sort this out because you have a lot of angry people on the flight,” she said.
The Star