SINGAPORE, Dec 13 — A Singapore Airlines flight from Cape Town in South Africa to Singapore was delayed for nearly 32 hours due to a technical issue with the aircraft.
According to Mothership, the flight, SQ479, was originally scheduled to depart on the morning of December 10 but was rescheduled to the evening of December 11 due to ongoing issues with the plane.
Passengers were reportedly stranded at Cape Town International Airport for nearly two consecutive days.
The delay began with an initial seven-hour wait, with passengers later informed that the flight would be rescheduled to 7am (1pm Singapore time) on December 11.
However, when passengers returned to the airport the next day, they faced further delays.
“People were beginning to run out of patience due to the lack of confirmation for a rescheduled flight,” a passenger told the Singapore media organisation.
“The station manager also appeared stressed out despite handling the situation calmly.”
In response to the situation, Singapore Airlines issued an apology, explaining that the Airbus A350-900 had experienced a technical issue while on the ground at Cape Town International Airport.
“The engineers on site required more time to rectify the issue, so a decision was made to delay the flight,” an SIA spokesman was quoted as saying.
Passengers were allowed to disembark while engineers worked to fix the issue, and hotel accommodation and meal vouchers were provided, the spokesman added.
Despite engineers’ best efforts, the issue persisted into December 11.
The flight was renumbered to SQ9479, with a new departure time of 7am (1pm Singapore time), but it finally departed at 6:23pm (12:23am Singapore time).
It landed at Changi Airport on December 12 at 3:03pm Singapore time.
