Category: this is south africa

Plane turns round. Twice.

Posted on

Much excitement last night as one of the BA flights from Cape Town to London Eefrow reported smoke in the cockpit and turned back to the Mother City. Here’s what that looked like on the big map of Southern Africa.

Halfway up Namibia is clearly enough for anyone.

But when my wife told me about this story, I was vaguely concerned that either she or the site had got it wrong. Because I had heard this story before. And it wasn’t a BA plane from Cape Town to Heathrow. It was a BA plane from Heathrow to Cape Town.

But neither of us was wrong. Because it was both of them. Look:

That’s a BA flight from LHR to Cape Town. A few days ago.
And clearly Algeria is far enough for anyone.

But hang on just a second: THAT’S THE SAME PLANE!!!!

That diversion was due to a “full electrical shutdown”. And that’s concerning, because that might have affected the entertainment system. No wonder they went back. It’s only influencers that pretend to rawdog their flights.

No-one on that first story (which was actually the second diversion), seems to have picked up on that second story (which was the first diversion). But I would say that two diversions for one plane on a single round trip is a bit dodgy.

And honestly – without being dramatic – I’d be thinking twice about getting on board G-XWBG when it leaves Cape Town (for however long).

This all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Someone’s going to be in trouble…

Posted on

… And it looks like it might be the Two Oceans Marathon.

Obviously, this race hasn’t been the same since I ran it several (or more) years ago. And you’d not catch me out there these days – it’s horribly oversubscribed and therefore not at all pleasant.

But exactly how oversubscribed?

The permit granted by the City for the event allowed for 17,000 runners. Which is frankly horrific.

But what’s worse is that – by the organisers’ own data – there were apparently 17,677 official finishers.

And there’s a widely accepted 15% dropout rate from start to finish.

Something doesn’t quite add up.

The implications, ramifications, repercussions and upshot of this apparent disregard for the 2025 licence conditions could mean that no licence will be granted for the races next year.

Full story on The Running Mann website. Incredible allegations of corporate greed and of shocking organisation.

Go and read it.

Unsecured penguin caused helicopter crash in South Africa

Posted on

Yep. Not incorrect.

We’ve talked about flying penguins before. This guy wanted to try it, but the protagonist in our story here went high enough, and decided to promptly return right back down to earth, where penguins belong.

An “unsecured” penguin in a cardboard box was the cause of a helicopter crash in South Africa, a report into the incident has found.
The penguin, which had been placed in the box and on the lap of a passenger, slid off and knocked the pilot’s controls just after take-off from Bird Island off the Eastern Cape on 19 January.

Thankfully, no-one – including the penguin – was injured.

According to the report, released this week, the flight had been conducting an aerial survey of the island in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape province.
After completing the survey, the helicopter landed, where a specialist then requested the transport of one penguin back to Port Elizabeth.
The report did not say why they had picked up the penguin.

This is perfectly reasonable. No-one needs to know why you p-p-p-p-pick up a penguin. You might want a nice chocolate biscuit with your morning coffee. You might be involved in some shady penguin kidnapping scheme. That’s your business. We don’t need to know. We wouldn’t even know now if it weren’t for the damn bird crashing the aircraft.

All we need to make sure of is that now hat you’ve decided to pick up the penguin, you must complete a “risk assessment” and include the transport of the penguin on board.

The aviation authority said the pilot conducted a “risk assessment” but omitted to include the transport of the penguin on board which “was not in accordance with the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) 2011”.

Oh.

Oh dear.

The report said all situations should be subject to “established safety protocols” and compliance with aviation safety procedures.

I’m not 100% au fait with how many of those “established safety protocols” and aviation safety procedures specifically mention the transportation of penguins, but reasonably, you’ve got to guess that it’s probably very few.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and we should be happy that there were no casualties on this occasion.

But as always, there are lessons to be learned here, and next time you are transporting a penguin in a helicopter, I trust that you will remember this blog post, and be well aware of the inherent dangers of such an endeavour.

Pathos

Posted on

Pathos:

Ludovico Einaudi announced his 2025 album The Summer Portraits back in early October last year. And as an artist who has released many new-age, modern classical albums, it’s clear that he had read the room with this particular track from the release.

The album was written in summer in Italy, and while The Summer Portraits is generally uplifting, and tries to pull the listener out of the doldrums…

The new project is inspired partially by the musician’s childhood in Torino. “I always considered Torino a place I would never go back to live. It was very grey, very industrial – I felt like I was in a cage,” Einaudi says in a press statement. “It’s a strange place, very poetic in a way. The soul of the people is more hidden. They don’t show things off – you have to find the dynamism inside yourself…”

…Pathos very much acknowledges the starting place of that journey.

And that follows along with the findings of the World Happiness Report, which came out at the end of the last month. People are generally less happy. This snapshot was taken just before November last year (before the US Election), and the US (24) and the UK (23) were already at their lowest ever positions.

This graph shows a very basic “Life Evaluation” perception score for a few nations, where 10 is the best that your life could be, and 0 is the worst. I’ve included the score for Finland and Afghanistan – the top and bottom rated countries in the study.

I’ve also included Ukraine, who are just behind SA, despite having their country invaded by the murderous forces of a despotic, nuclear-capable regime right on their doorstep.

We don’t have the same issue with Botswana.

Yet.

It will be interesting, given the… er… somewhat “extreme” new US government and its wide-reaching policies, what next year’s results will look like.

Assuming we’re still here, of course.

Suddenly, Eurasian Chaffinch

Posted on

Yep. Exactly what the title says.

I was taking photos of horses in Hout Bay this afternoon when I spotted this little guy in the pine tree above me.

These birds are actually invasives in Cape Town, one of several species introduced by Cecil John Rhodes in his attempts to anglicise South Africa.

Interestingly, while many of his efforts died out very quickly and some are near ubiquitous today, the Chaffinch falls somewhere in the middle, and 130 years after its introduction, is still only found in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs.

Like Hout Bay.