Cape Town - FlySafair says that the technical issues that disrupted two flights have been fully resolved.
In a statement, the airline says Flight FA202 from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Friday January 22 was cruising at 36 000 feet when it experienced a gradual loss of pressure on board.
"The pilots commenced a fully controlled slow descent, in accordance with Boeing manuals and Safair- and CAA-approved operating procedures, taking nine minutes to get to 10 000ft, a height where the aircraft does not need to be pressurised.
"The aircraft was checked by engineers who repaired a loose clamp on a duct. After successful pressurisation tests on the ground and test flights up to an altitude of 36 000ft, the aircraft re-entered service on January 24."
Flying with the number FA103 from Johannesburg to Cape Town, the plane then had "a second, coincidental technical incident".
The statement says that on this occasion, a cargo door seal caused a gradual loss of pressure in the cabin.
"Once again, pilots began a slow and fully controlled descent in eight minutes, from 32,000ft to 10,000ft."
The statement quotes FlySafair chief executive officer Elmar Conradie as saying the airline "fully appreciates and understands that some passengers were worried during the incidents".
He apologised for any inconvenience caused and added that the airline did everything in its power to accommodate these customers and the majority travelled on a standby aircraft.
He assured passengers that the crews adhered to all safety procedures and that their safety remains the airline’s top priority.
The statement says that Simon Segwabe, executive manager of air safety operations at the Civil Aviation Authority, publicly commended the FlySafair pilots for bringing passengers back to the ground safely and following CAA prescibed protocol, which requires pilots tocomplete all safety procedures critical to flight before addressing passengers.
The aircraft involved has since passed all engineering tests but will not return to service until a further series of ground and flight tests have been repeated, the statement says.
“The second round of tests is not a necessary requirement of the aircraft manufacturer or the CAA, but we are proceeding with them anyway because safety is our priority and we want to honour our customers’ trust in us,” Conradie said.
Passengers on the flights reported that the planes nose-dived and that the oxygen masks did not work. Conradie says this was not the case. Both aircraft descended gradually and did not nose-dive. At no time did either aircraft descend at a rate outside the normal descent envelope.
“Oxygen masks do not inflate, which lead some passengers to believe that they were not working. As pressure loss was gradual in both incidents, oxygen was not actually required at any time during either flight. The crew manually dropped the masks as a precautionary measure and to assist in passengers’ comfort,” said Conradie.
The oxygen system was checked after landing and engineers confirmed that it was fully operational, that all masks deployed and all worked properly.
The oxygen canisters on the Boeing 737 are designed to provide oxygen for a period of 15 minutes, which can be double the time it takes to reach a altitude where oxygen is not needed. Understandably, some passengers tried to use the masks for longer than 15 minutes and may have had the misconception that the masks did not work.
“We acknowledge the concern these incidents may have raised among consumers, but we want to reassure passengers that we have an excellent safety record in the 50 years we have flown as Safair,” said Conradie.
“ IOL, adapted from a press release