Yesterday we had the 2nd test match between South Africa and the All Blacks which is customary to always have a fly over normally by the airline sponsoring the national rugby team. This started back in 1995 when South Africa won the World Cup which was an SAA 747 and since those days have had an Emirates A380 doing fly passes and now Airlink.
I am no pilot so I have no idea what the legal requirement is or what is the protocol with regard to fly overs and public safety. My guess would be far more than 50ft as a safety clearance knowing that there is very little room for margin of error knowing a sudden gust of wind or turbulence could have turned things very quickly.
For those that know Cape Town Stadium and where it is situated the fly over would start with a fly over Table Bay proceeding over the stadium and afterwards a steep banking climb to the right to avoid Signal Hill. Other stadiums around the country do not have such challenging obstructions during the flight path so this is very different.
Last week we had the two Airlink commercial jets fly very low over our house twice as they arrived too early and had to circle to let the New Zealand Haka finish before arriving. If they arrived during the anthems or the haka that would be seen as disrespectful so they banked and came back for a second run. I tried to get a photograph at the time but the trees got in the way as the planes must have been about 150 m above the roof tops.
The question being raised by everyone is were the planes too low for safety reasons and should this be something people should be concerned about? The one plane was less than 50ft above the stadium roof and the second plane looked around 100ft so maybe the first plane got things slightly off.
Apparently yesterdays flyover was all legal and was planned this way even though it did look a bit low. Camera angles could make it look closer than what it was yet I do think my eyes are not deceiving me and it was too low and lower than what the data suggests.
Airlink this morning have come out stating they are proud of the precision flying and will no doubt use this as a promotion type advert. Next week there will be another fly over as the third test match is at the FNB Stadium in Soweto so the chances these two planes will fly over my property or close by are rather high and will try and get another crack at capturing them on camera.
Airlink is the largest airline in South Africa and the second largest in Africa behind Ethiopian Airlines. This I did not know and thought they were the second biggest in South Africa behind SAFAIR. They say any publicity is good news and this story has since gone viral with people wondering if this is genuine with many thinking this was AI. Next weeks fly pass will no doubt be less spectacular as one cannot imagine going any lower as they have already proved how low they can go.
Posted Using INLEO
