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A FlySafair flight was forced to return to the terminal on Saturday after a passenger on board refused to wear a mask.
According to the airline’s spokesman, Kirby Gordon, flight FA288 was heading to the runway at OR Tambo International Airport after 5:00 p.m., about to take off for King Shaka International Airport, when the incident occurred.
Said passenger refused to wear his mask, leaving the airline crew and pilot with no option but to unload it.
“The man refused to use his mask, which is a national law, and the Civil Aviation regulation and it happened before the aircraft took off. “Unfortunately, we had to go back to the terminal and he was escorted off the aircraft by SAPS,” Gordon said.
Gordon added that the passenger had refused to comply with regulations and wear his mask on board. He said the airline had no alternative but to back down after fighting to get the passenger to comply. “The reality is that in this new normal, wearing a mask in a public space is the national law, and it is also the regulation of Civil Aviation.
Therefore, we must enforce that rule with the same degree of vigilance that we would if, say, a passenger sat on an airplane and lit a cigarette or refused to wear a seat belt.
“Not following the regulation and the law endangers our operating license, but more than that, it is about maintaining what is correct so that we have a policy of tolerance in this matter,” said the spokesperson.
He added that the incident had caused a slight delay in the flight, also affecting others, but time had recovered.
Gordon said that, as a matter of interest, if a flight was halfway through and a passenger refused to comply with regulations, the pilot could decide to land at the nearest airport or return to where the flight departed.
“In which case we will hold the person who was endangering everyone’s safety responsible for the costs of landing that plane, then we will take off again, which could easily be around R 120,000,” he said.
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