Photo: Aviation Herald
Photo: Aviation Herald
For those of you who are a little nervous when it comes to flying, you might have to look away now. Photos of a damaged Mango Airlines flight – where part of the plane fell-off and landed near a major township in the Western Cape – have surfaced online, and they’re a little scary. For those of you who need a story recap…
- A panel of the left-hand wing to the body fairing fell from a Mango aircraft and landed in Kayamandi, near Stellenbosch.
- The affected plane returned to service about 24 hours after landing in Johannesburg, on 14 January 2020.
- The Boeing 737-800 model has been flying since 2011, and this is its first reported issue of such magnitude.
2020-01-14: Mango Airlines B737-800 (ZS-SLC, built 2011) experienced wing fairing panel separation during climb-out of Cape Town Intl AP (FACT), S-Africa on flight #JE152 to J'burg. Part fell came down at #Stellenbosch where nobody was hurt. @cine_mattic https://t.co/EqMju2JVMO pic.twitter.com/v6QDWWH66u
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) February 4, 2020
Mango Airlines and the Stellenbosch incident
The first murmurs about this air-scare surfaced on local news website Scrolla. Mungo Soggot put together an article which claimed the panel landed in a township near Stellenbosch. The writer said that he finds the incident both farcical and terrifying, and alleged that one local tried to cash in on Mango’s misfortune by collecting the discarded panel and offering to sell it back to the airline. He may be correct…
Photos of damaged Mango Airlines flight shared online
Although Mango have denied making a transaction, this photo is damning for the airline. Even if the “payment” part of the story can’t be verified, the fact that a large chunk of debris from one of their planes landed this close to an urban settlement is a public image nightmare – and it could have been much, much worse.
Several photos of the missing panel have been shared by a number of sources in aviation. A significant part of the aircraft’s body was terribly exposed, leaving vital equipment vulnerable to the elements:
Flight-mare in the Western Cape
Eish, no thanks… On Tuesday, the airline addressed the issue head-on. They assured the public that no-one on-board the flight was in danger of losing their lives once the panel fell off, and the SA Civil Aviation Authority are already investigation the matter. There are no fatalities or casualties to report.
“Mango Airlines can confirm that a panel, a side wing-to-body fairing, did detach from the body of one of our aircraft. Please be assured that the loss of this panel fairing did not pose a safety risk to the flight.”
“We are in the process of investigating the occurrence and, apart from submitting the initial report to the Civil Aviation Authority, we will be sharing all subsequent evidence and findings with the CAA once the investigation is finalised.”
Mango Airlines
