Gunship
10th Aug 2005, 07:14
I would call it "Great work by a sharp crew" :ok:
Almost an hour after 150 passengers on a kulula.com flight left Johannesburg for Cape Town, they were told to put their head between their legs for an emergency landing in Johannesburg.
Ambulances and emergency staff were waiting on the runway and relieved passengers clapped their hands when flight MN101 eventually landed safely at Johannesburg International Airport at 07:15.
Kulula's MD-82 jet took off at 06:20. About 20 minutes later the captain announced a "flickering light", which could indicate a faulty engine, said Adele Engelbrecht-Botha, a passenger.
The pilot turned the aircraft around.
"At first we thought the captain just wanted to show us the beautiful sunrise," Engelbrecht-Botha said. :E (Ja well no fine) :E
"But then the crew showed us the procedure for an emergency landing, saying we must put our head between our legs when the plane landed. We were also prepared to leave the plane as quickly as possible as soon as we got the order to evacuate. It was quite traumatic."
Another passenger, Jurg Slabbert, said in the end the landing was "normal", but that ambulances escorted the plane.
Kulula's executive director, Gidon Novick, said on Tuesday the pilot had cut one of the engines as a precautionary measure and returned to Johannesbrug because of an oil pressure warning.
It was, however, a false alarm, and "nobody was in any danger".
Novick said there was "no merit" to allegations that older jets in the fleets of low-cost airlines, such as kulula, were unreliable.
"It all depends on how well an aircraft is being maintained. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) services all our aircraft, as well as technicians of British Airways (BA), who owns a big share of our company."
The airline typically buys "young" used aircraft of about ten years old, while the average life span of a passenger jet was 30 years.
Gilbert Thwala, executive manager of incident investigations at the CAA, said there was "no indication" that low-cost airlines in South Africa were unreliable.
"There has been no increase in the number of emergency landings or flights experiencing problems during the past couple of years. We (the CAA) have more inspectors who are servicing the low-cost airlines' aircraft because an older generation of airplanes are being used."
Thwala said the "same standards" applied to all airlines in South Africa and the frequency of incidents, such as the one on Monday morning, was "stable".
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1751514,00.html
Almost an hour after 150 passengers on a kulula.com flight left Johannesburg for Cape Town, they were told to put their head between their legs for an emergency landing in Johannesburg.
Ambulances and emergency staff were waiting on the runway and relieved passengers clapped their hands when flight MN101 eventually landed safely at Johannesburg International Airport at 07:15.
Kulula's MD-82 jet took off at 06:20. About 20 minutes later the captain announced a "flickering light", which could indicate a faulty engine, said Adele Engelbrecht-Botha, a passenger.
The pilot turned the aircraft around.
"At first we thought the captain just wanted to show us the beautiful sunrise," Engelbrecht-Botha said. :E (Ja well no fine) :E
"But then the crew showed us the procedure for an emergency landing, saying we must put our head between our legs when the plane landed. We were also prepared to leave the plane as quickly as possible as soon as we got the order to evacuate. It was quite traumatic."
Another passenger, Jurg Slabbert, said in the end the landing was "normal", but that ambulances escorted the plane.
Kulula's executive director, Gidon Novick, said on Tuesday the pilot had cut one of the engines as a precautionary measure and returned to Johannesbrug because of an oil pressure warning.
It was, however, a false alarm, and "nobody was in any danger".
Novick said there was "no merit" to allegations that older jets in the fleets of low-cost airlines, such as kulula, were unreliable.
"It all depends on how well an aircraft is being maintained. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) services all our aircraft, as well as technicians of British Airways (BA), who owns a big share of our company."
The airline typically buys "young" used aircraft of about ten years old, while the average life span of a passenger jet was 30 years.
Gilbert Thwala, executive manager of incident investigations at the CAA, said there was "no indication" that low-cost airlines in South Africa were unreliable.
"There has been no increase in the number of emergency landings or flights experiencing problems during the past couple of years. We (the CAA) have more inspectors who are servicing the low-cost airlines' aircraft because an older generation of airplanes are being used."
Thwala said the "same standards" applied to all airlines in South Africa and the frequency of incidents, such as the one on Monday morning, was "stable".
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1751514,00.html