A SA Airlink Embraer ERJ-135, registration ZS-OTN performing flight SA-8230 from Johannesburg (South Africa) to Nampula (Mozambique), was climbing through FL310 out of Johannesburg when the crew stopped the climb, drifted the aircraft down to FL140 and returned to Johannesburg for a safe landing.
A passenger reported the captain announced a “minor technical problem”, they would return to Johannesburg to have maintenance look at the problem. The aircraft landed back with good number of fire trucks standing by and taxied to the gate, another Embraer ERJ-135 was already waiting for them. While in the bus the passenger could observe maintenance personnel not even taking a look at the returned E135. The same crew performed the flight on the replacement aircraft but did not indicate anything about the earlier problem even after landing in Nampula. The passenger talked to a number of fellow passengers including a pair of engineers who had travelled in the back of the cabin. The engineers claimed they could definitely hear an engine was shut down in flight, and pointed out that after the engine shut down the aircraft did perform only right hand turns, a fact which had dawned on the passenger so far but then was recognized as correct. The passenger annotated: “Basically I would not really care, but what makes me angry is that nobody was informing us about what was really going on. I think thats pretty unprofessional and they could – at least – have told us after landing in APL. All that behaviour did not really seem like a ‘minor technical problem'”.
A replacement Embraer ERJ-135 registration ZS-SNW reached Nampula with a delay of 2.5 hours.
The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for 18 hours, then resumed service.
The Aviation Herald
Airlink Embraer ERJ-135LR returns to Johannesburg because of “minor technical problem”
