Resident tracks Boeing before emergency landing
Glen Marais resident watches from below as the aircraft dumps fuel before landing safely
A commercial pilot and flight instructor was witness to the drama in the air above Kempton Park on Sunday when a Cathay Pacific Airlines Boeing 747-400, destined for Hong Kong, was forced to make an emergency landing at OR Tambo International Airport.
The pilot decided to return to the airport due to a bird strike just after take off.
Ruan Schoeman of Glen Marais was outside washing his car at about 1.30pm. He said he heard thunder but there were no clouds in the sky.
Schoeman suddenly saw the plane flying by with flames coming from the left engine. He said because he knew about this type of stuff, he immediately realised it was either a bird strike or that there was something wrong with the engine.
However, he knew the plane was not falling.
He went inside to get his Flightradar 24 (an app that lets you track flights in the air) to see where the plane was headed. He then fetched his camera to document the turn of events.
Schoeman said the aircraft first circled down to towards Boksburg and Benoni. It then came back and made three circles over Tembisa before finally coming in to land. He said the Boeing dumped must of its fuel over Tembisa.
According to him the maximum take off weight of these planes is 396 tonnes and the maximum landing weight 295 tonnes. That was why it first had to dump.
Sharon Chen, marketing manager at Cathay Pacific South Africa, said 213 passengers and 21 crew took off from OR Tambo International Airport at 12.41pm.
According to Chen, shortly after take-off, the aircraft encountered a multiple bird strike. As a precautionary measure, the captain took the decision to return to OR Tambo International Airport.
Chen said after that a standard fuel jettison procedure was done in order to ensure an appropriate landing weight.
She said the flight landed safely without further incident at 1.43pm, about one hour and two minutes after departure.
Chen said all passengers and crew members aboard the aircraft were safe without any reports of injury and Cathay Pacific Airways arranged overnight hotel accommodation for the affected passengers. They rebooked them onto its Monday flight to Hong Kong.
She said fuel jettison was a standard procedure among the aviation industry in order to ensure an appropriate safe landing weight.
“Aircraft must not exceed a certain weight during landing to ensure the safety of the occupants. The operation is coordinated with air traffic control authorities and certain airspace is assigned for fuel jettison. It is accomplished at a high enough altitude where the fuel will dissipate before reaching the ground.”
Cathay Pacific engineers inspected the aircraft to identify any damage to the engines or aircraft following the bird strike.
Chen said that safety was their first priority and they were grateful for their passengers’ understanding and apologised for any inconvenience caused.
