The pilots of dozens of private jets, blamed for Wednesday night's chaos at King Shaka international airport, will face disciplinary charges, Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele said last night.

At least 40 chartered aircraft, carrying about 200 wealthy businessmen, have been blamed by airport officials for about 1000 soccer fans missing the World Cup semifinal between Spain and Germany in Durban.

"The problem was with the private jets and aircraft that refused to move on the ground. They refused to make space for commercial flights and emergency aircraft," a furious Ndebele told The Times.

"An investigation is under way through the Civil Aviation Authority. The investigation will look at why the pilots refused a lawful order to move their aircraft."

He compared the actions of the pilots to "parking in front of an ambulance" and refusing to move. "They [were] blocking emergency flights from getting in and allowing aircraft to run out of petrol in the sky. It is illegal, what they did.''

Earlier yesterday, Airports Company of SA operations director Bongani Maseko said "arrogant" foreign and local pilots of the South Africa-registered private aircraft had dropped the businessmen at King Shaka two hours before the semifinal kick-off. They then refused to move from parking bays at King Shaka to the decommissioned Durban international airport.

The Airports Company is threatening the pilots and owners who refused to move their aircraft with unspecified penalties.

But the chairman of the World Cup local organisation committee, Irvin Khoza, blamed the massive delays after 6pm on Wednesday on unnamed "heads of state" who attended the match.

"Of all the games, there was no incident or hitch in terms of transportation. There was only the one delay. Because of the heads of state, there were implications. Free-fly zones were required for 50 minutes' and this had a knock-on effect," he said at a briefing in Johannesburg yesterday afternoon.

Though responsibility for the debacle is being kicked around like a football, Gidon Novick, chief executive of Comair, which operates Kulula and British Airways flights, threatened a lawsuit against Acsa and Air Traffic Navigation Services on behalf of his passengers.

Fifa is refusing to reimburse the delayed fans for their tickets, but the Airports Company's Maseko said compensation from his company would be regarded as a "slap in the face" by fans because the company was obliged to refund only R58 per passenger.

Maseko denied reports that the preferential treatment of VIPs led to the delays, maintaining that all pilots were told of the landing procedure at King Shaka.

"Pilots knew well in advance that they would be given 20 minutes to land, drop off their VIP, then take off to the old airport to reposition. There was never an issue of miscommunication," he said.

"The procedure worked well throughout the day. Then, at 6pm, several private aircraft landed and the pilots refused to move out of the parking spaces."

Maseko said that, by 6.30pm, there were 75 aircraft with nowhere to land. He had to intervene personally and negotiate with the pilots of three aircraft, who refused to move.

 "They finally agreed to move but each plane took at least 15 minutes for start-up and clearance, so the delay just continued."

An official at King Shaka, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said pilots of the 40 aircraft had the "audacity" to switch off their engines and lock themselves in their aircraft, or had left them locked and unattended.

This caused five passenger aircraft operated by Mango, Kulula, British Airways and SAA, from Cape Town and Johannesburg and carrying at least 1000 South African, Spanish and German fans, being turned away.

Maseko said none of the aircraft could be redirected to the decommissioned airport because there were not enough staff to handle the landings.

The King Shaka official, who saw the businessmen arrive, said there was not a well-known face among them.

Actress Charlize Theron was also delayed and arrived after 6pm.

"She arrived on a plane that was supposed to be carrying Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio," he said.

 THE FANS

Johannesberg resident Raven Maharaj spent R23000 on match tickets for his family of five, who had watched the semifinal between Holland and Uruguay in Cape Town on Tuesday.

He spent thousands more on tickets for a British Airways flight from Cape Town to Durban that was to have taken off at 2pm. It took off at 4pm and he missed the match because the plane had to turn back to Cape Town.

 THE PILOTS

Pilots turned to the Internet to rant about Wednesday's delays at Durban's King Shaka International Airport.

One pilot, calling himself Romeo ET, wrote on AvCom.co.za: "There was a Global Express that was parked sideways taking up two nose-in bays."

Another pilot wrote: "A Boeing 757 landed while commercial aircraft were being turned away." - Sally Evans

http://www.go2010.co.za/