Chaos in Cape Town - It Only Took One Flat Tyre and.....

By Rob Russell

I remember writing an article, albeit in November 2018, talking of the consequences of there only being one runway available at Cape Town. Should it become blocked, there would be diversions all over the country. And passengers stranded at Cape Town that could not fly out. Read it here

Well, it happened on a grey, misty and overcast day, Tuesday the 4th August 2026 to be precise

An international operator due to land mid-morning on a scheduled flight had to divert to Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth in the old days) due to the weather at Cape Town being below the Company’s operating minima. Having landed there and with the weather improving in Cape Town, they set off back to the city.

Due to the inclement weather, they completed the ILS approach and, after landing, came to a rather abrupt stop due to a burst tyre - in fact, during the braking and coming to a stop, it appears the tyre was properly damaged and also disintegrated. The crew deserve praise for bringing the aircraft to a safe stop on the runway and the plane not departing the runway, which could have happened. Thank heavens that did not - we all remember many years ago, when an Airbus A340 left the runway during the turn off it and how much chaos that caused. And that was when Cape Town was a quiet little airport!

Little did anyone know that the fun and games were about to start and start properly! The main runway was now blocked as the aircraft could not taxi off the runway! With the weather being IMC and rather foggy, that meant the option of using the second smaller runway went out the back door, at least for landing aircraft. That runway can only be used in good weather.

So no movements into and out of Cape Town. Yes, there were a few departures from the smaller runway - luckily nothing happened to those flights. One wonders where they would have gone had they hit a problem and needed to return, but I am confident the crews and their operations personnel had covered all those options.

In the meantime, the runway was blocked and no one could use it. ACSA did publish a statement about what was going on, but chaos reigned supreme. The statement did nothing to stop the frustration of those many passengers who were now inconvenienced, either on flights diverted away from Cape Town and not knowing when they would get to the Cape, or other passengers waiting at Cape Town wondering if they would leave and go home!!!

Three hours later and the aircraft was still on the runway, and everyone was running around trying to make a plan to get some tyres for it and change them. But it's a foreign aircraft, so they probably did not have their own spares and the necessary equipment down at Cape Town, so that would need their country’s CAA and their insurance brokers' permission to use tyres from a South African company. Even if just to put them on and tow off the runway, so they can get some of their own spare tyres from their home base.

The main problem with changing the tyre was that the oleo was now very close to the ground, and a special jack is needed to lift the aircraft up. Luckily, there was one available at Cape Town, but such a specialised job takes time, and they have to do it on the runway, as they could not move the aircraft. And don't forget the airlines and the company providing the engineers and equipment would have had to come to some sort of agreement on what would happen had the change gone wrong and the aircraft suffered any damage. All these things have to be covered before the tyre can be changed!

After three hours, there were already a total of 23 domestic flights that had diverted and 3 international flights as well. Literally all over the country! Never mind the many flights that had to be delayed at their points of departure, until some clarity could be found as to how long the delay was to be. Airports around the country were suddenly swamped with extra aircraft that were not supposed to be there. Companies were running around looking after frustrated passengers, organising catering and accommodation for some of them, due to flight crews going out of duty. An airline's worst nightmare. And as for departures, a total of 20 flights were delayed.

The poor passengers were stranded, not knowing when they were going to depart, or even if they were going to depart. The terminal was full of frustrated passengers, the restaurants close to bursting point, queues at all the restaurants with passengers wanting to eat, and many airlines not checking in passengers, as they were not sure if their flights were going to fly. The poor terminal was creaking at the seams. I also highlighted the problems of Cape Town getting close to bursting point only a week or two back, via another article. Read it here

The Orwellian situation on the worst order!

After much sweating, cursing and no doubt a few prize swear words by the poor ground engineers, they got some tyres on the poor plane; it was hurriedly towed off, the runway was inspected, and the runway opened just short of 4 hours after the incident.

Now the fun and games started! All those missing flights had to find their way back to Cape Town; airline operations staff were working flat out to manage their revised schedules, begging crew to stay in duty times and looking for other standby and available crews to operate flights, where the original crews ran out of duty times.

Crews were desperate to get back into the air, and the air route down from Joburg looked like the N1 at 4 pm on a Friday. But well done to all ATNS staff who were suddenly faced with a deluge of aircraft coming, going, being turned around and sent on another flight. Airline personnel also deserve praise for managing the situation.

Spare a thought for all those international departing connecting passengers, who probably would have missed their onward connecting flights. Once again, airline personnel would have stepped up to the plate and helped those poor people.

All this chaos was caused by only one runway being available and it being blocked by a flat tyre!! And the grand ACSA plans are to take two runways and replace them with one runway. I hope some of them sat down on Wednesday morning and said: “nee man we need two runways here!”

This situation highlights the shocking situation where the Cape effectively becomes shut off from the outside world, as no aircraft could get in or out of the Cape. It highlights the need for Cape Town to have two runways capable of operating in all weather (Tuesday afternoon, the weather was such that the smaller runway was out of landing operating minimums). If ACSA are only planning to have one runway in their expansion plans for Cape Town, Cape Winelands will have to come to the party and provide the other one - more pressure on them to get into overdrive and start to build their new airport.

Imagine if that 737 had departed the runway and got stuck alongside it! To get it out and move it could have taken a day or two. In the winter weather, that means no flights would have been operating into and out of Cape Town, well, wide bodies at least. Had the weather improved, at least the narrow bodies could move operations to the smaller runway. Imagine the knock-on effects to the economy around the greater Cape Town area?

But life returned to normal on Wednesday morning. There were a few exhausted ATCs, some stressed airline personnel and a few grumpy passengers becoming less grumpy. Let's hope ACSA realise the importance of having two runways at their airport.

It remains to be seen if the CAA will be conducting the standard investigation, or will they take the easy option and ask the country of the foreign aircraft to conduct an investigation? (It's not our aircraft, so we're not interested!!) Or just pretend it did not exist, like they seem to have done with a few other incidents over the past few months down here in the Cape?

Whoever said flying would be enjoyable? Enjoy the ride! And please be patient; you will get to your destination!