South African authorities have banned South African Express Airways from flying due to serious safety violations.
The airline was operating regional flights for the country’s flag carrier, South African Airways (SAA). Its operating permits were suspended by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on Thursday‚ stating: “This effectively means that as of today, SA Express can no longer continue to operate as an airline“.
In addition, the SACAA has also suspended the ‘Certificates of Airworthiness’ of nine aircraft being operated by the airline, which means that these aircraft can no longer be operated, not even by a different carrier, until a certificate is restored.
SA Express was operating a fleet of 21 aircraft, consisting of Bombardier Dash and CRJ series, with an average age of around 15 years.
The decision to revoke the operator’s permits comes after the SACAA conducted audits at the airline and its maintenance organisation in the past several days. It was revealed that there were 17 findings, of which five are classified as ‘very serious safety or security risks’.
In recent times, there have been several safety-related incidents at the airline. Earlier this month, a flight to Johannesburg performed an emergency landing, due to a mid-air engine failure.
Editor’s note: The author Jakob Wert, who is the sole copyright holder of this content, also co-published this article on another news website.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
