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Johannesburg - In a second South African airline scare in as many weeks, an aircraft engine fell off on take off in Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.
This time it was Nationwide's Flight CE723 (at 15:50) flying out when the right hand engine "separated from the wing" metres above the ground.
"The aircraft continued to climb out. The aircraft returned and landed at Cape Town International Airport without further incident," said Charmaine Thomé, Nationwide's sales and marketing manager.
Except for saying there were no injuries or further incidents, Thomé would divulge no further information. She added that other Nationwide Airlines flights "continued to operate as normal".
Sister website News24.com quoted a caller on Capetalk Radio who was in a plane that landed shortly after the affected plane took off saying an engine could be seen lying on the runway at Cape Town International Airport.
"They took off and left the engine behind," the caller told the radio station. "It was an engine lying on the ground."
Another eyewitness reported seeing a Nationwide plane flying overhead with smoke coming out of the right side of the plane.
Communications manager for the airport, Deidre Hendricks said the airport was closed for about 30 minutes before re-opening. About six incoming flights were diverted to George airport.
Last week Thursday a South African Airways (SAA) Airbus A340-600 jet landing at the same airport landed safely and had its "front wheel slipping off the side of the cross runway," according to a statement released by the airline.
The jet was carrying approximately 300 passengers and its front wheel was "buried in soft sand off the runway". SAA added that the aircraft was "taxying at a very low speed" on the runway after landing when the incident occurred.
Except for the Helderberg (an SA commercial flight, which happened outside the country), South Africa has never had a serious cormmercial airline accident in its entire history. There have been numerous fatal incidents for small, non-commercial flights with no more than passengers and crew each.
However, in recent memory the growth of the domestic commercial airline industry has brought numerous scares like these two incidents. This raises questions as to whether the increased competition has resulted in safety being the first casualty.
- Fin24