South African Airways (SAA) has apologised to passengers who were travelling from Johannesburg and Accra, Ghana, to Washington DC, in the US, on Sunday, for the “inconvenience and anxiety” experienced during the flight.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the statement explained how two unconnected incidents contributed to the delay in departure from Accra on Sunday night. The first was damage to the aircraft door and subsequent to that, a technical problem, which led to a decision to night-stop in Accra while waiting for a replacement aircraft.

SAA operated a scheduled flight, SA 209 on Sunday from Johannesburg to Washington DC via Accra. The flight operated normally between Johannesburg and Accra, where SAA usually stops over to offload and pick up passengers, as well as to refuel.

While on the ground in Accra, an aircraft door was damaged by a catering truck from SAA’s service provider at the airport, resulting in a three-hour delay to fix the door before the flight resumed.

Soon after take-off, the aircraft was forced to return to the airport in Accra after the cockpit crew noticed that the aircraft was experiencing a technical problem, which was detected in the cockpit.

The operating crew followed standard operating procedures in cases of emergencies throughout and landed the aircraft safely as soon as possible, SAA stated.

There is no information or basis to make a connection between damage to the aircraft door and the technical problem experienced in the cockpit while the aircraft was airborne, SAA added.

Contrary to reports on social media and other platforms, SAA reiterated that there was no fire in the cockpit, that no one was injured and that the aircraft made an air-turn back and landed safely in Accra with all 223 passengers and operating crew on board.

The aircraft is still on the ground in Accra and is being attended to by the technicians to establish the cause of the technical problem.

SAA provided hotel accommodation to its customers in Accra and provided other services to mitigate the impact of the inconvenience to its passengers.

In addition, the airline dispatched a replacement aircraft from Johannesburg to Accra to fly the passengers to their final destination.

The flight departed from Accra at 18:01 on Monday and landed in Washington DC at 04:21 on Tuesday.

Whilst the incidents could not have been foreseen, the decision was taken based on safety considerations, in the best interests of passengers and crew, SAA said.