Johannesburg – Flights to and from OR Tambo Airport were possibly delayed by the controversial Jet Airways plane transporting Gupta wedding guests, as it performed what seemed to be a sightseeing flight over Pretoria before landing at Waterkloof Airforce base early last Tuesday morning.

This came to light in an interview with Athol Franz, owner and editor of African Pilot magazine, aired on eNews Channel Africa on Monday. 

In the interview Franz explained how having a flight plan is requirement for any commercial flight, but that air traffic controllers at OR Tambo International had no idea about the movements of, what has come to be known as, the Gupta flight.

“The air traffic controllers at OR Tambo had to take evasive action. Certain aircraft were held waiting on the ground and other aircraft that were in the air were diverted, because they had no idea what this plane was doing at that time,” Franz explained, citing an earlier conversation he’d had with an air traffic controller from OR Tambo. 

He added that although they had the plane on radar and were tracking it, they had no idea of where it was going. They assumed that it would land at OR Tambo and couldn’t release any planes till it had done so. 

According to Beeld, the flight approached Pretoria from the east, flying over Bronkhorstspruit, before turning north. After this it turned left and circled over the capital, in the vicinity of the Union Buildings.

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