Earlier this month, an SAA domestic flight bound for Cape Town landed with critically low fuel reserves after severe weather forced the aircraft to divert twice.
The Airbus A320-232, operating as flight SA313 from Johannesburg to Cape Town on 11 May, was initially unable to land due to a wind shear warning over Cape Town International Airport
According to Simple Flying, the aircraft entered a holding pattern before the crew decided to divert to George when they identified there was “just 75 minutes of fuel remaining in the tank.”
Severe weather forces second diversion
The problems did not end there.
As the aircraft approached George Airport, crews were informed that a severe storm system had moved over the area and landing would not be possible.
The plane was then diverted again to Port Elizabeth Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in Gqeberha.
According to the original report, the aircraft landed “10 minutes shy of the 75 minutes it had remaining” when it first diverted away from Cape Town.
The SAA Airbus A320 eventually landed safely despite “weather conditions [that] were still unfavorable.”
No passengers or crew were injured.
Fuel levels spark concern
After landing, inspections found the SAA aircraft had only 420kg of fuel left across all three tanks.
That included:
340kg in the left tank
30kg in the centre tank
50kg in the right tank
An Airbus A320 typically carries about 18 700kg to 24 000kg of fuel depending on configuration. This means the aircraft landed with roughly 2% of its maximum fuel capacity remaining.
Industry aviation guidance also places a typical A320 final reserve fuel level at around 1 100kg to 1 200kg. The remaining 420kg represented roughly 35% of that reserve.
The aircraft involved, registration ZS-SZH, is a 14-year-old Airbus A320-232 that forms part of SAA’s domestic fleet.
The plane is configured to carry a total of 138 passengers across two classes, with 24 seats in business class and 114 in economy.
While the low fuel reserves were a concern, “SAA followed all relevant and required policies and procedures including incident reporting and investigation protocols,” writes The Aviation Herald.
