POLL | Do you feel safe on local flights after grounding saga?

The safety of travellers using local planes is at the centre of conversations and continues to make headlines.

This after some of the country's major airlines, SAA, Comair (British Airways and Kulula.com) and Mango grounded some of their flights on Tuesday.

TimesLIVE reported that planes were grounded after the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) issued a notice relating to irregularities found during an audit of their maintenance and technical service provider.

Sunday Times reported that passengers on a Mango Airlines Boeing 737 flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town in September were left terrified after a sudden nosedive, which forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The malfunction was blamed on a defective part fitted at the maintenance subsidiary SAA Technical (SAAT), which supplies all major maintenance for SAA and Mango.

However, SAAT denies this. In a statement, SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said: “All components and parts are procured from approved suppliers and all supporting documentation complies with CAA requirements on components.”

“It is untrue that there is a known international crime syndicate that has infiltrated SAA or SAA Technical that is responsible for tender manipulation and/or corruption at SAA or SAAT.”