The SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) and South African Airways (SAA) have thrown out the window accusations of incompetence of pilots and the safety concerns at the carrier, after reports of malfunctions on a flight from Accra to Johannesburg in April came to light.
They stressed it was the fuel contaminated with water at their last stop.
SAA chief executive John Lamola said, “The cause of the incident was not linked to maintenance, as such. It was linked to a refuelling event, where the fuel was found by SAA technicians to be contaminated with water. There is always an aircraft technician on board SAA’s long-haul flights.“
This comes as the heat is turned up on the safety standards of the airliner after the incident, which happened in April was kept under wraps until recently unearthed in reports by AIB Ghana.
Lamola said Sacaa had investigated the matter since April, 19 as did the Ghana aviation safety body. Neither body has found anything at fault with SAA to date.
Sacaa spokesperson Sisa Majola said the regulator initiated its investigation after SAA had triggered the report.
Majola said based on the flight-data analysis and post-flight reporting by the four pilots who were in charge of this flight, the incident risk severity was classified as manageable, and not as a major risk.
“The aircraft captain’s handling of the situation, from the decision to over-night the flight in Accra, and acting on the certification of the technicians that the a/c was airworthy to proceed to Johannesburg, and the handling of the subsequent in-flight surge, has been considered acceptable,” Majola said.
Majola added that Sacaa had not been obligated to publicly release the information. Depending on the final outcome of this safety investigation, Sacaa might take enforcement action against SAA, if they were found to have been negligent or non-compliant with civil aviation regulations.
“In fact, Sacaa has undertaken several of these investigations including in the past few months with other airlines, and none of those reports were sensationalised nor was Sacaa required to release them to the media and/or the public,” Sacaa said.
Leading aviation expert Dr Preven Naidoo, an ex-airline pilot and assistant professor of Aviation Management at one of the largest Aviation Universities in the Middle East, came out in defence of the standards of pilots at SAA, whom he said played the incident by the book.
“Many do not realise that risk management when operating a highly advanced transport jet aircraft is a science. I believe that an explanation using rational science is the only way that the untrained will attain clarity and avoid the trappings of cognitive biases. In fact, when the crew were first made aware of the fuel pump low-pressure situation, both Lusaka and Luanda were further away than Gaborone or Johannesburg,” Naidoo said.
Naidoo said due to Optimal Aeronautical Decision-making (O-ADM) there was no right or wrong decision in continuing, diverting, returning or holding, when operating an advanced jet airliner… There was only an optimum decision based on the utilisation of all available resources.
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