South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said on Friday it had grounded Nationwide Airlines flights, raising fresh concerns after an engine fell off one of the airline's planes earlier this month.
SACAA said the company could not guarantee continued safety and that it had suspended approval for the unlisted airlines' maintenance organization, which had failed to comply with regulations to meet the authority's safety standards.
SACAA also suspended the certificates of airworthiness of all aircraft maintained by Nationwide. Both suspensions took effect at midnight, November 29, the SACAA said in a statement.
"As a result of this action the aircraft that constitute the Nationwide air fleet will not be permitted to undertake any further flights until their airworthiness status has been verified," the air authority said.
On November 2 South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority grounded all Boeing 737-200 aircraft in the country for safety checks after an engine fell off the wing of a Nationwide Airlines aircraft carrying 106 passengers in Cape Town. There were no injuries sustained by anyone on board or on the ground.
Nationwide's spokesman Rodger Whittle had earlier said all its domestic and international flights had been grounded by the country's civil aviation authority, but did not know how long the ban would last.
"The civil aviation authority has removed our aviation maintenance organization license, which effectively grounds our airplanes," he said.
"We do not know for what period of time, we have asked the civil aviation authority for clarification and information, and we don't anticipate that it will be a long situation."
Whittle said the airline operates about 50 to 55 flights a day, locally and internationally.
Nationwide, which has flights to London's Gatwick Airport, says on its web site that it has more than 350 domestic, regional and international weekly flights, including to Zambia.
