The Airports Company South Africa has unreservedly apologised to all stakeholders and members of the public for the flight disruptions that occurred at O.R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) earlier this week.
Image: File image
Flights at OR Tambo International Airport have resumed and are going according to schedule following delays earlier this week, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said.
"The knock-on effect of this four-hour delay impacted a further number of flights and passengers, when the backlog was cleared," the company stated in a press statement on Wednesday.
It has further initiated a probe into the incident and promises to provide a report on what measures it will take to prevent future incidents.
Acsa said 177 flights were delayed, leaving 22,073 passengers stranded at the airport.
"The total impact on the Acsa network was 483 flights and 49,429 passengers as well as 31 flights cancelled for the day. This took place against an estimated total number of 1,500 flights and 110,000 passengers, which are normally processed through Acsa’s network daily," it said.
"Therefore, about a third of the flights were impacted and about half the daily passengers were impacted."
Acsa explained that the disruption was due to a shattered drive shaft.
The damaged fuel shaft that halted travel operations at the OR Tambo International Airport.
Image: Supplied/ACSA
"This prevented the pumping of jet fuel from storage tanks to the aprons, which enables the re-fuelling of aircraft," Acsa said.
"The repair work was conducted in compliance with rigorous safety procedures. This encompasses depressurisation, drainage of fuel, purging the system of hydrocarbons and associated gasses and the implementation of specialised rigging to ensure the safe completion of work."
It stated that OR Tambo International Airport's fuel infrastructure has an extensive approved capital programme involving refurbishment and capacity related projects which are at various stages of implementation.
The estimated value of the projects is R1.5 billion.
Acsa said two years ago, when the main fuel valve failed, it was replaced and the operation restored.
It added that this year, the airport implemented a tank configuration modification to allow the airport to receive larger volumes of fuel from the coastal pipeline.
Some of the other projects being implemented, which will improve the reliability and provide redundancy of the fuel system.
"A new 20-inch jet fuel line which is 1.8km long from the tank farm to the aprons for which construction will start in March 2025 and will be completed by March 2026," Acsa said.
"An additional redundancy through creation of a bypass mechanism, for which designs are completed and is about nine metres long, is currently being implemented to be completed by February 2025."
Furthermore, a preliminary incident report is being finalised subject to the laboratory analysis of the metal pieces by the engineering team, to establish the reason for the breakage of the drive shaft. This will form the basis of the detailed investigation conducted by the board, Acsa said.
"I am happy to report that the refuelling challenges have been resolved and the airport has been operating as normal since yesterday afternoon," Acsa CEO, Mpumi Mpofu said.
"The operational backlog that resulted from this issue has been successfully cleared and flights are back on schedule."
seanne.rall@iol.co.za
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