The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has removed the authorisation for a 3rd rugby flypast by South African airline Airlink following concerns over last weeks flypast over the DHL Stadium which drew worldwide attention after the aircraft appeared exceedingly low.
Following the incident, Airlink issued a statement saying that it’s pilots conformed with the approved plans for the flypast but the SACAA today issued a statement saying it was investigating the event and had withdrawn approval for this coming weekend.
The regulator said that Airlink had submitted 3 applications for the non-standard flight and the 2nd one, was the one that was approved.
It added that it had now engaged with the airline and downloaded flight data from the aircraft which it will use to investigate compliance verifications.
It said that a full report will be shared with Airlink once the SACAA has completed its assessment.
The SACAA went on to say that it was extremely proud of South Africa’s safety record of no fatal airline accidents in over four decades which has been achieved by a culture of compliance and safety.
The flypast, which took place before the South Africa v New Zealand game was noted when the Airlink aircraft appeared to fly just a matter of feet above the stadium roof with one off the pair apparently needing to pull up to avoid the rising roofline. The other aircraft also flew through a pyrotechnics explosion.
Professional pilots and general public had mixed reactions to it with some describing it as reckless and others applauding it.
Discover more from UK Aviation News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
