Durban — Two planes had to be diverted to Johannesburg after a military jet landed at the King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) with a burst tyre.
On Tuesday morning, councillor Henning de Wet alleged that an SANDF plane landed at the KSIA and the tyre/s burst. At least two other planes, Lift and FlySafair had to be diverted to Johannesburg so they could haul the SANDF plane off the runway.
The KSIA confirmed to the Daily News that on Monday, February 20, a military jet landed at 4.30pm with a reported burst tyre.
“We can confirm there were no injuries reported from the incident,” KSIA said.
“The airport operations team immediately attended to resolving the matter, thereafter a runway inspection was conducted complying with all protocol processes ahead of the reopening of the runway,” it said.
KSIA said that operations are back to normal except for the knock-on effects of the incident resulting in the delay of the following flights:
• FA 416 from Cape Town had an estimated time of arrival of 4.48pm, diverted to Johannesburg.
• GE 374 from Cape Town had an estimated time of arrival of 5.10pm diverted to Johannesburg.
• EK 775 diverted to Johannesburg but returned to Durban after the runway was cleared.
The KSIA apologised to all passengers for the inconvenience caused.
Reacting to the incident, Henk Hugo said that a burst tyre on landing is a fairly common thing. A private aircraft shut down Cape Town a few weeks ago.
Commenting on Armed Forces Day in Richards Bay, Sfiso Baba Ka Demo said: “It was a great experience for us uMhlathuze Municipality residents. Let's hope each and every year is gonna be like this.”
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