Phone battery catches fire on Pristina flight

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

SAA sold

South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances. A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways (SAA), Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The government will retain a minority stake. The grouping named Takatso will invest as much as 3.5 billion rand ($258 million) over the next three years, Lift co-founder, Gidon Novick, and Harith Chief Executive Officer, Tshepo Mahloele, said in an interview. “Government will have no further financial obligations to the company, outside of the existing liabilities that they will settle”, Novick said. He added, “Route networks we are still working on, and it will be a phased roll-out based on demand re-emerging post Covid”. The sale of SAA comes about six weeks after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, having reduced its workforce by almost 80% and cut liabilities to about 2.6 billion rand. The next challenge is to resume international flights, though South Africa remains cut off from much of the world due to pandemic travel restrictions. A longer-term goal is to list the carrier on a stock exchange, Gordhan said. In the meantime, the government will retain special voting rights to ensure the airline remains in the country, among other national priorities. The deal represents a triumph of sorts for Gordhan, who has argued for the revival of SAA with the help of private investors while others were calling for it to be liquidated. While SAA is now “solvent and liquid,” business-rescue practitioners said when handing over the aircraft, subsidiaries including low cost arm Mango and maintenance firm SAA Technical remain under financial strain and are in the process of being recapitalized. The Department of Public Enterprises and the new consortium will together assess the future of the divisions as part of the due diliegence process, Gordhan said.
Source: Bloomberg

Phone battery catches fire on Pristina flight

NEWS FLASH

A Gearmania Flug flight from Prstina to Zurich was forced to declare an emergency after a phone battery started emitting smoke shortly after takeoff. Passengers reported a plume of smoke was rising, with cabin crew discharging fire extinguishers onto the battery. While the cabin crew dealt with the smartphone, the flight crew returned the Airbus A321 to Pristina for a safe landing some fifteen minutes following departure. Emergency services were at hand and secured the phone. The airline reported the battery was transported separately from the mobile. Last year, a number of Samsung Note phones caught fire due to faulty batteries, prompting airlines to ban their use on board. The brand of the phone or batteries involved in the incident are unknown.

Comments

Anonymous13:54
It was not the Samsung S7 it was the Samsung Note which caught fire several times.
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Anonymous14:04
Can Pristina cater to the A321? Is it the same landing distance as the A320?
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