BREAKING NEWS – Earlier this morning an eye-witness let us know that an SAA Boeing 737 arcraft had to abort take-off at Durban International Airport at about 6:15am on Friday 11 December 2009.
The witness reported that the aircraft was heading down the runway and appeared to be about to lift its nose off the ground, when the pilot suddenly slammed on brakes and brought the aircraft to a stop. The 737 then taxied into a docking bay, where the starboard jet engine began smoking. Apparently there had been a small (but not visible) fire in the engine pod (picture below, courtesy of our eye-witness)
The SAA Aircraft, after docking for emergency repairs
Emergency vehicles were called, and the fire put out. However, passengers were only evacuated after this had taken place. Witnesses claimed that the pilot should be commended for his quick action, without which a serious tragedy may have occurred had the aircraft been allowed to take off.
This comes after three incidents involving SAA Airlink planes in the last three months, raising concerns about the safety of SAA Airlink planes.
While this incident did not involve an SAA Airlink plane, it is worth noting that SAA and Airlink make use of the same aviation maintenance engineers, SAFair (source unconfirmed).
James
Kyle Ecks
Jason Dude
Heavy stuff.
I just saw you sprinting down the road past the SARS office. Another breaking story?
Doing what I can to get the news to the people. Fortunately a contact was there to witness it, so big up to my friend Mandy for being on the scene with her camera, and making a huge effort to get the photos to me before Media24 got their paws all over this!