The incident was definitely 1Time.
Another scare on 1time flight
ÜGEN VOS
JOHANNESBURG - 1Time airline has had its second scare in as many days, with another plane running into engine trouble 20 minutes into its flight to Cape Town.
Yesterday
The Citizen reported flight 1t823 was forced to return to Johannesburg on July 14, when the right-hand engine gave out 10 minutes into the flight. The following day, passengers on flight 1t103 to Cape Town braced for impact, when that plane’s left-side engine also gave issues.
“While we were making our de-scent, we were informed we needed to make our way back to OR Tambo,” Renee Matthews said. The situation devolved “from quite serious to very serious”, with the flight crew drilling emergency procedures.
Matthews said the crew told the passengers to “remove all sharp things from around us, pack our bags away and remove high heels”. The captain announced the left engine had suffered a drop in oil pressure, and was “no longer working”.
The plane then went into a “quick descent”, with crew yelling at them to “brace!” for impact.
“I grabbed my two-year-old son and held him down, and sang in his ear as we made our landing,” said Matthews. She said she’d found the experience terrifying – but it scared her even more to hear about similar incidents on other 1time flights.
1time CEO Rodney James said both landings and the cabin safety procedures were “precautionary”, and passengers were never in any danger. Flight 103 turned back due to a “minor defect” caused by problems with its oil quantity indication, said James. “It’s company policy to rather turn back, than continue a flight where we have a warning indication,” he said.
South African airline maintenance and safety has been under the microscope since the Civil Aviation Authority decided to ground local operator Nationwide’s fleet in November 2007 – saying its maintenance division couldn’t guarantee passenger safety.
Analysts believe the liberalisation of the skies and the 2010 Fifa World Cup will exponentially increase the burden on SA’s existing aviation infrastructure, consequently leading to an increased safety risk.
Johannesburg International is expecting, and preparing for, an increase in passengers to 25 million by 2010. This is a jump of 12 million more people passing through the airport's gates since 2004.
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March 2008: Passengers on 1t219 to Durban hear rattling and the sound of popping tyres as the plane attempts take-off, and are reportedly “shocked into complete silence as the entire plane starts shaking”. On the second take-off attempt, the engine fails completely due to a “compressor problem”.
January 2009: A 1time passenger aircraft makes an emergency landing when the left engine fails 10 minutes into the flight, emitting “three loud bangs” and “causing the plane to list”.
April 2009: Flight 1t829 makes a “precautionary” emergency landing at a South African Air Force base near Bredasdorp, when the Boeing 737 experiences a “wing flap indication warning”.