
An aircraft was grounded at Cape Town International Airport yesterday evening owing to reports of a possible bomb threat.
The FlySafair flight that was due to depart for O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg was alerted to a security risk, resulting in the plane being grounded and all passengers disembarking.
Security risk
FlySafair Flight FA102 was scheduled to depart Cape Town International at 17h25 on Thursday, 6 June, but was halted when crew members alerted Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and the South African Police Services (SAPS) that a bomb may have been placed on the plane destined for Joburg.
All of the passengers and crew were asked to safely disembark and a sweep was done of the entire aircraft.
The possible threat was attended to by SAPS and the Special Task Force, which combed the plane while passengers were required to wait for four hours.
According to ACSA spokesperson Thea Govindsamy, the flight was eventually declared safe, but the passengers were all rebooked to a different flight which took off at 22h30.
Other details surrounding the case are scarce as the investigation is still underway.
FlySafair’s chief marketing officer, Kirby Gordon, told News24 that this was an isolated incident, but that he could not elaborate further and the matter is now in the SAPS hands.
“I can confirm that it was one of our flights that was affected by this incident. Unfortunately, there’s not much more we can talk to beyond that,” he said.
ACSA said that the incident was allegedly triggered by comments made by two of the passengers aboard the aircraft.
“We can confirm that two suspects were apprehended and that there are no further risks to airport operations,” it said.
The airport’s management has made reassurances that the event has not affected operations at the site and that flights are resuming their normal schedules as of this morning.