South African Airways (SAA) on Thursday denied that the airline’s maintenance division SAA Technical (SAAT) used fake parts when servicing aircraft belonging to SAA subsidiary Mango Airlines, or any of the other airlines it services.

The statement follows a Sunday Times story headlined “Jet scare highlights criminals in the SAA workshop”.

SAA assured customers that all components and parts used by SAAT were procured from approved suppliers and that all supporting documentation complied with South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) requirements.

The airline refuted claims that the airline admitted to possibly having been supplied with “suspect parts” or components.

While any acts of criminality cannot be ruled out, the airline reiterated that it was “untrue that there was a known international crime syndicate” that had infiltrated SAA or SAAT that was responsible for tender manipulation and/or corruption at the State-owned airline or its maintenance division.

It said that there was no link, direct or indirect between the aircraft incident involving the Mango flight reported on in the media and matters that were currently under investigation at SAAT.

BACKGROUND

SAA’s statement and the media claims follow after a flight on September 2, operated by Mango Airlines, experienced technical difficulties that resulted in an air turn-back.

The event itself had a limited impact on passengers, SAA said, who on the day, would have experienced a minor jolt, “akin to driving through a pothole”, as the flight crew disengaged autopilot to assume manual flight controls in accordance with the operating procedures of the aircraft manufacturer.

The cause of the air turn-back related to a component failure. The part, a stabiliser trim motor, failed during the climb of the flight to its planned cruise altitude. After levelling off in the cruise, the crew’s attention was drawn to a “Stab out of trim” condition, meaning that the autopilot was maintaining the flight condition, but that the aircraft was not trimmed correctly.

The aircraft component that failed on the flight was legitimately procured from the original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) of Boeing 737-800 aircraft, SAA reiterated on Wednesday, adding that SAAT had received the part from the manufacturer on August 5.

It was fitted on Mango’s aircraft on August 7 and failed after 96 flights and 125 hours of operation.

SAA currently awaits feedback from the OEM, to whom the failed component has been returned to establish the cause of the component failure.