An Airlink flight from Johannesburg to East London was forced to divert to the airport in Gqeberha after it failed three attempts to land at the King Phalo Airport, due to bad weather conditions. | MaliDayimani
An Airlink pilot tried three times to land at the King Phalo Airport on Monday evening - without success.
Stranded passengers, who were meant to depart on the same flight to Johannesburg at 18:15, had to wait for more than two hours as the flight had to ride out the storm in Gqeberha.Faulty landing gear forces BA flight from East London to Joburg to make an emergency landing The flight then eventually left Gqeberha at 19:30 - and the pilot managed to land the aircraft on his fourth attempt at the King Phalo Airport, at 20:05. Small Businesses Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was one of the passengers, who took to social media to post that she was starving.
The airliner said:"Airlink's priority is the safety and well-being of its customers, crew and equipment. The diversion to Gqeberha was necessitated by bad weather in East London, which created conditions at the city's airport that were below the acceptable and prescribed safety minimum.
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