Airlink, a South African based airline company announced a wet runway excursion incident involving one of its aircraft in a statement released by the company in the afternoon of Thursday 18th January 2024. The excursion occurred upon landing at Pemba in Mozambique.
The Embraer 135 Regional Jet, Registration ZS-SJX, operating as flight 4Z 204 from Johannesburg, had 32 passengers and 3 crew onboard. Everyone on board disembarked from the aircraft through the main front entrance. There were no injuries reported by the time of the statement release. The safety of customers and crew was being taken care of by Airlink and airport personnel at Pemba.
Airlink notified the relevant Mozambique and South African Authorities about the incident. It was reported that the airport operator closed the runway but promised to dispatch a back-up aircraft to Pemba to operate the return flight as soon as runway re-opens.
The statement notified that an Airlink recovery team will travel to Pemba to assist with retrieving the aircraft, which had aquaplaned off the runway.
Authorities also noted that Airlink will provide all necessary assistance to Mozambique’s investigators. As the country of occurrence, Mozambique’s Directorate of Air Accident Investigations will conduct formal investigations into the occurrence. The Airline promised to provide more updates as more verified information becomes available.
Airlink, previously known as South African Airlink is a regional airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its main business is to provide services between smaller, under-served towns and larger hub airports. It has since expanded to offer flights on larger, mainline routes. The airline has a network of more than 60 routes to over 45 destinations in Southern Africa. In January 2021, it became the second-largest carrier within Africa by number of flights, and third-largest by number of seats.
