Phew, South African Plane’s ‘Hijack’ was a False Alarm

JOHANNESBURG – Airlink has confirmed that the hijack distress signal sent by one of its aircraft today was actually just a technical glitch and everyone on board is fine.

Social media had been abuzz earlier with reports that the South African plane had been hijacked. The erroneous message came on the same day as four suspected terrorists were due to appear in court in South Africa.

It therefore didn’t take long for people to panic on Twitter and link the trending topic #TerrorArrests with #SA Airlink, #Wonderboom and #HijackedPlane… with many voicing concerns that the arrests and ‘hijack’ were linked to the US Embassy’s warnings of possible terrorist activity in South Africa a few weeks ago.

In a statement on Facebook this afternoon, Fly Airlink said: “Airlink confirms one of its aircraft, an Avro RJ, operating as flight SA8678 on 11 July 2016 from Cape Town to Pretoria’s Wonderboom Airport with 72 passengers and 4 crew on board, this afternoon emitted an anomalous hi-jack alert through its transponder.

“The passengers, crew and aircraft are all safe and on the ground at Wonderboom Airport where authorities have held the aircraft as a prescribed precautionary measure while they verify that all is in good order.

“Airlink will assist the investigating authorities with their inquiry, which is a mandatory step following such incidents. Airlink has also initiated an internal investigation into the erroneous transmission.”

In the separate incident of the arrests on Sunday of the three men and one woman, in their early 20s, who are suspected of being IS (Islamic State) supporters – it marked the culmination of an investigation over the last year by the Hawks and the State Security Agency.

According to local reports, police seized ammunition and stun grenades in the raid. The case has been postponed to 19 July 2016.