Some more journalistic prose
'Not this time, 1time'
10/08/2005
Waldimar Pelser
Johannesburg - A woman left her husband to his fate on Wednesday and insisted on getting off a plane that had had to turn back to Johannesburg International Airport because of a warning about a faulty wing flap.
She was one of more than 100 passengers on 1time's flight T301 to East London, which took off shortly after 07:20, but was back on the ground soon afterwards.
Four passengers refused to fly any further.
A warning light in the cockpit indicated there was something wrong with the MDZ82's wing flap, but, like the kulula.com flight which had been cut short on Tuesday, 1time said Wednesday's scare in the air was a fuss about nothing.
Pieter le Roux, a passenger, had read a news report on Tuesday morning about kulula's flight to Cape Town being cut short because a warning light was flashing.
"I told another passenger about it and joked it might happen to us now," said Le Roux on Wednesday.
Found it was a false alarm
"About 25 minutes after we had taken off, the cabin crew said we had to turn back."
Technicians in Johannesburg immediately began investigating the problem and found it was a false alarm, said 1time chief executive Glenn Orsmond afterwards.
But when the passengers were asked if any one did not want to continue with the flight, Le Roux and three others held up their hands.
One of them was a woman who let her husband fly on his own to East London.
Le Roux said: "One is supposed to inspect the plane beforehand. If I go on a long journey, I check my car's oil, water and see whether my tyres are punmped."
Orsmond said it was "routine" to turn back in the event of a mechanical warning, even if it appeared unnecessary later, and added that "no emergency measures" nor an emergency landing had been necessary on Wednesday.
How they save on costs
He said: "The planes of established airlines regularly turn back, but no one knows it.
"There is no relation between the price (of your air fare) and safety. Only the established airlines in South Africa have had accidents."
Orsmond said 1time saved on costs because it sold tickets via the internet, "has more-productive staff" and "does not provide free meals or airport lounges".
The airline's aircraft were maintained by the firm, Aero Nexus, which had been in operation for more than 10 years and was accredited with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).