Tournament News

'A FIFA jet blocked planes'

2010-07-09 13:53
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Johannesburg - Reports have emerged that a private FIFA jet was among those which refused to move for domestic flights at a Durban airport.

Around 700 fans missed the Soccer World Cup semi-final between Spain and Germany on Wednesday night because three domestic planes were not allowed to land due to congested parking bays at King Shaka International Airport.

Chaos ensued as some angry fans even tried to assault the crew on their flights and the blame has generally been attributed to 'gross misjudgement' on behalf of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA).

The problem is said to have been private jets carrying VIPs allowed to park at the airport which refused to move to Durban International to accommodate scheduled flights.

ACSA's Bongiwe Pityi confirmed to IOL on Thursday that the company planned to fine the owners of at least seven aircraft.

Pityi said: "We had an option to tow these aircraft, but we could not because we might have ended up damaging them."

The Mercury is now reporting that a FIFA aircraft was one of those that refused to budge.

"The crew of the FIFA plane was asked to move out of King Shaka, but the crew quite correctly refused to leave without the prior agreement of the FIFA delegation."

FIFA claimed to have nothing to do with the events at King Shaka and have made no other comment as yet. 

Read more on:    fifa

 

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