Passengers share frustrations, questions over airport power outage

Michael Seeger’s son Waldo, who was travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town, is among scores of passengers who spent hours sitting on a plane at Gqeberha airport on Sunday evening after being diverted there due to a power outage at the Cape Town International Airport.

Flights were unable to land or depart and were diverted to other airports in the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) network after the runway lights, airside fire rescue and air traffic navigation services were knocked out on Sunday. By 1am on Monday, services resumed but Acsa said its technicians would need to work on permanent repairs during the day.

The cause and duration of the outage, the exact number of flights and passengers affected and clarity on the extent of the repairs are yet to be clarified. 

Seeger said Waldo left Joburg at 6pm on Sunday night, landed in Gqeberha at 9.30pm and only arrived in Cape Town just before 3am on Monday. He missed his morning MBA class at the University of Stellenbosch. 

“Is there no backup power system? Are there no Acsa employees on standby at Gqeberha — the passengers on my son's flight couldn't leave the plane because the airport was closed. Are there no FlySafair employees on standby to talk to in an emergency like this?” he asked.

Uncomfortable flight experiences were shared by many passengers, who questioned what recourse they had to be compensated for missed connecting flights, business appointments and other cancelled arrangements. Travellers were also concerned that this could occur at one of the country's major airports. Those who had not yet boarded their planes waited.

Here are some of the comments on social media:

• “This was a major inconvenience and caused a delay of more than seven hours for our Mauritius flight. We rerouted to Joburg. Where do we submit a claim for compensation?”
• “Even though it's been restored at 1am, you're not considering the repercussions and the impact it's had on travellers. I was on the KLM flight that was supposed to land at 9pm last night. More than 12 hours later, I'm still stuck at a hotel at OR Tambo.”
• “Would an airport not have backup generators? Surely for safety that would be key.”
• “We have been stuck @ PE since 10pm and literally slept on the airport chairs.”
• “My daughter left Joburg at 6pm for Cape Town on a FlySafair flight. They were diverted to PE. Landed in PE at 9.45pm. At 2am they were given blankets to sleep at the airport. They only departed for Cape Town at 7am this morning.”
• “This has been the most traumatic hours of waiting ... The lack of communication and consideration for how cold it was at the airport was highly appalling.”

Acsa spokesperson Thea Govindsamy confirmed power has been restored after the outage that affected the runway lights and navigational aids. She said the restoration allows for safe aircraft landings and departures.

Govindsamy said Cape Town International Airport experienced a fault on one of its main airfield circuits, which led to a cascading failure, affecting the uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

“Unfortunately the airport's backup system, which includes redundant circuits and generators, failed to activate as expected. This incident caused damage to several circuits.”

She said technicians and specialists were working on restoring the network on Monday and all systems were expected to be back to normal on Tuesday. 

FlySafair's chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon said the Sunday evening electrical issues had a wide effect across the South African aviation landscape. Six of its aircraft had to divert to Gqeberha.

“I’m not sure how many aircraft from other airlines were diverted there too but I think there were over a dozen in total, so much so that they had to create makeshift parking space on the taxiways,” he said.

He knew of at least one inbound international flight that had to stop over in Johannesburg. 

“The disruptions and resulting delays are very frustrating to customers of all the airlines, and our teams who worked through the night to try to get these aircraft on to Cape Town.”

He said most of the customers affected were already on aircraft and communication was through pilots. Where there were flights delayed and passengers on the ground, they used SMS as their primary means of communication.

During the course of the morning, all delayed flights had departed and customers had the opportunity to fly, albeit later than expected, he said.

“Passengers who opted for travel insurance would have done well in that they will be able to make claims for any expenses they incurred as a result of the delays.”

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