A FlySafair flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg had to turn around and head back to the Mother City on Wednesday morning owing to a technical issue involving its fuel load.
“The flight left Cape Town International at 06:18,” the airline said on its website.
“Shortly after take-off, the crew received an alert regarding a minor technical issue relating to the way the aircraft was balancing fuel loads and, in the interest of safety, they took the decision to return to Cape Town International so that the aircraft could be inspected.”
Passengers were informed in a travel update that the issue was minor and flight FA128 had turned back in the interests of safety.
The aircraft landed safely just before 7am and passengers were assured that a “back-up solution” would get them to their destination.
FlySafair warned that the incident was likely to have a knock-on effect, affecting some of its other flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
“This disruption to operations will have a knock-on effect on some later flights, specifically FA129 from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Our teams are currently sending out SMS notifications to all those customers, using the numbers we were provided at the time of booking. Airport staff at OR Tambo International are also available to speak with customers on FA1.”
More: timeslive