South African Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula will hold a press briefing today, 22 October 2019, at 16:00, at 120 Plein Street (GCIS – Imbizo) in Cape Town.
The briefing will solely focus on this morning’s precautionary grounding of aircraft, following a safety audit conducted by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on South African Airways Technical (SAAT).
Early this morning news broke that several planes including some belonging to SAA and Comair, have been grounded after the Civil Aviation Authority found irregularities at maintenance and technical service provider, SAA Technical.
South African Airways (SAA) advised customers that it may operate an amended flight schedule following a decision to recall some of its aircraft to undertake compliance verification in line with the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) requirements.
It added that the decision to recall the aircraft follows an oversight inspection conducted by SACAA at SAA’s maintenance subsidiary, South African Airways Technical (SAAT).
In a separate statement, Comair announced that as at 10:15 am this morning, a third of its services have been affected due to the notice received from the SACAA.
SAA further added to its statement that it understands that the inspection conducted by SACAA was in accordance with its regulations and a necessary exercise to ensure compliance and safety.
Meanwhile, Comair has issued a statement in which it said that it expects its full fleet to be operational tomorrow, 23 October.