A Nationwide Boeing 737 had to make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday afternoon when an engine fell off during take-off.
The plane, which had been bound for Johannesburg, landed safely after airport fire and rescue services hurriedly cleared the debris from the runway.
The incident was confirmed by the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) executive manager for air-safety investigations, Gilbert Thwala, late on Wednesday afternoon.
”A 737 from Nationwide was taking off and the engine dislodged from the wing,” he said. ”It was able to come back and land safely at the airport.”
There were 106 passengers on board.
Thwala said a two-person team of CAA investigators was on its way from Johannesburg to Cape Town to compile a report on the incident.
A caller to radio station Cape Talk, who landed on a flight just after the Nationwide plane took off, said he saw parts of one of its engines lying on the runway.
”They took off and left the engine behind,” he said. ”It was an engine lying on the ground.”
On Friday, flights in and out of the airport were severely delayed after a plane became ”stuck” on a runway. Passengers from the plane told a local radio station that the plane stopped after landing, turned, went off the runway and got ”stuck”. — Sapa