The SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa), which is investigating the dangerous incident during take-off of an SAA plane last month, has hit out at critics questioning its objectivity, saying it will not be drawn into “political fights” between SAA and its pilots, whom it suggests are involved in misinformation.
SAA pilots, 90% of whom belong to the SAA Pilots Association (Saapa), have been locked out since December in a labour dispute over the conditions of their retrenchment.
The news that an SAA Airbus A340-600 bound for Brussels experienced an “alpha floor protection event” on February 24 during take-off from Johannesburg has been accompanied by a raft of claims made on online aviation chat groups and WhatsApp chats that the authority attempted to cover up the incident. It has also been claimed that the authority allowed the flight 13 exemptions from civil aviation regulations to enable it to make the flight, which was to fetch SA’s second batch of Covid-19 vaccines.
An alpha floor protection event occurs when the aircraft operating system detects that the speed is too low on take-off and overrides the pilots to provide auto thrust to prevent the aircraft stalling. It is considered an extremely dangerous event and automatic reports are triggered by the system to both the engine and airframe manufacturers.
The authority has said that SAA failed to report the incident within the required time-frames of between 48 and 72 hours, an omission which it is also probing.
The authority said it is untrue that the Brussels flight had received 13 exemptions from aviation regulations. It received only one exemption, it said, related to the recency of the training of the crew, which had been fully mitigated.
SAA has been mothballed since September and none of its pilots have flown recently, which is a requirement that must be met through simulator or other training.
“The lies and frivolous accusations” being peddled in aviation circles, which were then picked up by journalists, are wasting the authority’s time and risk undermining SA’s reputation and that of the Sacaa, which it pointed out has a 30-year history of no accidents within the commercial airline sector.
In its statement on Thursday, the Sacaa suggested that the misinformation is being driven by a party that is in dispute with SAA.
“The Sacaa cannot be used in the fights than individuals have with an operator because that would be digressing from the mandate of Sacaa. The Sacaa refuses to be drawn into political fights. It is not a political party and has no interest in playing politics,” it said.
Shortly before the authority released its statement, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan fired his own broadside at the SAA Pilots Association, which he said was lobbying MPs and influencing their understanding of the SAA issues. Gordhan was appearing before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts along with the SAA business rescue practitioners.
“Members of Saapa are doing everything possible to sabotage SAA from getting off the ground. I don’t think committee members must [allow themselves to] be lobbied. What the pilots’ association is doing is highly detrimental to what we want to do as government, which is to get the airline off the ground,” he said.
Grant Back, chair of Saapa, said that his organisation had been completely neutral in all its statements on the issues of the Brussels flight. “There was an [alpha floor] event, we know there was and we are not getting drawn into this. The investigation is happening and we will see the outcome,” he said.
Earlier this week, the SAA business rescue practitioners issued a statement denying a full-scale alpha floor event, saying the pilots should be praised for averting disaster. Asked by MPs how it was possible to draw this conclusion prior to the investigation taking place, Siviwe Dongwana did not answer directly, but requested that everyone wait for the outcome of the investigation to ensure that only “what is picked up factually and reported” is discussed.
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