Mighty mid-air scare

cruising at about 30 000 feet above sea level.
The Boeing 737 passenger jet, operated by ComAir, was flying from Johannesburg to Harare.
The plane, which had flown for about 50 minutes, was forced to redirect and land at OR International Airport in a runway, which is not regularly used, as the Johannesburg Air Traffic Control prepared for the worst case scenario.
A number of fire tenders and ambulances were lined up on the runway to deal with any emergency, but the plane landed safely.
The landing and taking-off of all aircraft was temporarily suspended at OR Tambo International as the Traffic Controllers dealt with the emergency.
The Young Mighty Warriors were on their way from Mozambique where they played Young Mambas on Saturday night and cruised to a 3-0 victory in a Fifa World Cup qualifier to progress to the next round where they will meet the Falconets of Nigeria
The team left Maputo early in the morning and was supposed to connect a midday BA flight, which was delayed after it developed technical problems shortly before the passengers had boarded.
However, after the engineers had worked on the aircraft and certified it fit to proceed to Harare, it finally took off at 3pm but developed further problems midair.
There were mixed reactions from the passengers and the players with some in shock while others didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation they were in.
Young Mighty Warriors captain, Eunice Chibanda, who is one the senior players in the team and has flown regularly with the Mighty Warriors, said they were in shock.
“I was really shocked and I panicked and so were my teammates,” said Chibanda.
“It has never happened to me. In fact, I didn’t know that it can happen that a pilot can say he has lost directions whilst you are in the air. Right now I think I am now afraid of planes and whenever I go inside an aircraft the first thing I will do is to pray.”
Team manager, Debra Green, said most of the players were young and not used to flying.
And, therefore, when the captain announced to the passengers that he had lost the navigation system, most of them were confused.
“The players were really affected and right now some of them are still to recover but the good thing is they managed to make another flight and everyone safely got home,” said Green. Mighty Warriors chairperson, Mavis Gumbo, who was seating in the business class, said she also panicked.
“I think the air hostesses and pilots really panicked and the crew was giving conflicting statements and it is obvious they didn’t want us to panic with one talking about fuel faults and then about navigation,” said Gumbo.
“It was really scary, especially for us who were seating near the pilots and I was so traumatised. When we landed, I wasn’t ready for another short-haul flight and felt it was better for the team to finish the journey by bus.
“It was the second time that the plane had false starts and maybe it was bad omen and a sign for me to act and, as the head of delegation, you should be responsible for the welfare of all the players.”
Young Mighty Warriors’ fitness trainer, Gerald Maguranyanga, who is also a pilot and working towards getting a commercial licence, said it was quite a serious emergency but the pilots managed the situation well and were magnificent.
“I think we were less than 10 minutes before entering Zimbabwean airspace and the whole navigation system went down and we were about 30 000 feet above sea level,” said Maguranyanga.
“Normally the only thing that remains working is a campus but it is not stable and is like a back-up. The fuel gauge also developed a fault and went down. And at piloting school from day one you learn that you don’t want to mess with the gauge of fuel.
“They were still able to communicate with the Tower and probably were being told to tune to how many degrees and also from experience of flying the route they may have had an idea of the route although it would be difficult as they were far above.
“I think we landed fast and it was quite a serious emergency that is why we had not less than six fire tenders.
“I think the pilot who was now getting instructions from the Tower declared emergency landing to Johannesburg Control as he was landing heavily and the plane was to maximum capacity with passengers and cargo.
“Those guys are professionals and are trained not to alarm passengers so they just downplayed it, but it was really serious.
“The cabin crew quickly stopped serving food and just after the announcement the pilot made a quick 180 U-turn and from the way he executed the turn before crossing the Limpopo, I knew it was really bad. In these situations, the captain has the ultimate decision and I believe the guys really reacted well.”
Maguranyanga revealed that he feared for the worst.
“My mind was racing because I know about air crashes and when he mentioned fuel gauges not indicating properly I knew it was really bad,” said Maguranyanga.
“Initially people were not amused by the fact that we were going back to Johannesburg after the first delay but later they realised we had a serious problem as the pilot didn’t know where we were going and with the gauges not functioning properly. At times it’s also not good to know and it helps.
“We didn’t use the runway in use because once it is an emergency you try to avoid the main terminal and if the worse comes to the worst it is better for a minimal number of people to get injured or die rather than affecting a lot of people.”