South African (SA) airline Airlink has cancelled a planned flypast before Saturday’s Springboks-All Blacks rugby test as the country’s aviation regulator reviews a similar display conducted by the airline last \u200cweek.<\/p>\n
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Airlink said on Wednesday it had withdrawn its application for a formation flyby ahead of the Rugby Championship clash at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium, citing forecasts of unfavourable weather.<\/p>\n
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The SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACCA) is conducting a compliance verification of the airline’s August 29 flypast \u2060over Cape Town’s DHL Stadium.<\/p>\n
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“We are currently conducting a compliance verification just to satisfy ourselves that all safety protocols were adhered to by the crew,” SACAA executive Phindiwe Gwebu said.<\/p>\n
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Just before the start of the second test between SA and New Zealand, two Airlink Embraer aircraft flew in formation over the packed stadium, drawing widespread attention on social media.<\/p>\n
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According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the lead aircraft passed less than 50 \u200cfeet (15 \u2060m) above the top of the stadium.<\/p>\n
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The SACAA said it was analysing flight data recorder downloads provided by the airline and had requested additional information from the operator before reaching a conclusion.<\/p>\n
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Airlink said it had voluntarily provided the data \u2060and maintained the flyby “was performed safely” by crews comprising three senior captains with a combined 75 000 hours of flying experience.<\/p>\n
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“Although we have also heard the widespread \u2060enthusiasm for a flyby at FNB Stadium this weekend, the forecast weather points to unfavourable conditions for a safe formation flyby,” Chief Executive \u2060de Villiers Engelbrecht said.<\/p>\n
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SA and New Zealand are level at 1-1 in the four-test Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series heading into Saturday’s encounter at Soccer City in Soweto.<\/p>\n
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–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44532,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-44531","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Airlink has cancelled a planned flypast before Saturday's Springboks-All Blacks rugby test","published_date":"2026-09-03 13:40:56","news_description":"Airlink has cancelled a planned flypast before Saturday's Springboks-All Blacks rugby test","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44534,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44531\/revisions\/44534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}