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A fella I know has just posted the following on the England Fans Forum
Yesterday I went to Cape Town airport for a flight to Durban (via port Elizabeth) so that I could see the second Semi Final that night.
The flight wasn't until 1.30pm but I arrived at the airport at 10am.
This was because I wanted to try for an earlier flight.
I was told that for an additional fee I could indeed go on standby for earlier flights but I would then also have to go on standby for my original flight.
Therefore if I didn't get an earlier flight I could not be guaranteed a seat on my confirmed flight.
I thought the risk too great and so stuck with my original flight.
Flights to Durban all seemed delayed and in due course my flight showed an hour delay.
This meant that I would not make my connection in Port Elizabeth.
I went to the departure gate and the operator told me to go back out to check-in to seek an alternative routing.
I knew this would be impossible and so feared the worst.
At check in however they told me that the same aircraft would fly both sectors so that although it was delayed I would end up in Duban.Tthe flight duly took off at 3.30pm and arrived in Port Elizabeth at 4.40pm
I and most of my fellow passengers went into the Terminal and straight to departures and reboarded the plane at 5pm.
The captain then announced that due to congestion at Durban airport our flight was further delayed.
At 6.10pm we took off towards Durban but 40 minutes later the captain announced that we would be returning to Port Elizabeth as Durban airport was closed for at least an hour.
He said that we had enough fuel to circle for the hour but if the airport did not reopen then we would not have enough fuel to divert.
All the passengers wanted to circle and then insist on an emergency landing when we would be low on fuel.
However we turned and headed back towards Port Elizabeth.
Then the cabaret started !
A German ticket tout, who had been trying to sell tickets on board, and had 50 other tickets that he had to deliver in Durban, stormed to the front of the plane and demanded to see the Captain.
A hostess refused to let him into the ****pit and he pushed her against the door.
A Male steward then intervened and the German started assaulting him.
The next we knew was that the Captain had declared an Emergency (because of the Air Rage) and that we were landing at the nearest airport which by then was Port Elizabeth.
The annoying thing is that had he declared the emergency 5 minutes earlier we might actually have landed in Durban.
Once back in PE the Police came and took the German away and spent 20 minutes taking statements.
Apparently the German faces up to 15 years in jail !
We were then disembarked into the Terminal.
We were by then resigned to the fact that we would not be in Durban for the game which Kicked off in 40 minutes.
We set up camp in the Terminal and sat down to watch the match on TV.
Apparently Pilots of Private Jets ferrying VIPs to Durban had refused to move their planes to Durban's Old Airport for parking and so there was not space for the scheduled flights.
What annoys me thought is that there are 2 other airports within 90 minutes drive of Duban that we could have been diverted to and still made the game.
I'm now philosophical about the incident as it is the first time in watching Sport abroad (in 38 years) that I have missed the event. The fact that I had a $600 ticket is incidental.
As Tommy Cooper once said "It';s not the Principal, It's the Money!
Yesterday I went to Cape Town airport for a flight to Durban (via port Elizabeth) so that I could see the second Semi Final that night.
The flight wasn't until 1.30pm but I arrived at the airport at 10am.
This was because I wanted to try for an earlier flight.
I was told that for an additional fee I could indeed go on standby for earlier flights but I would then also have to go on standby for my original flight.
Therefore if I didn't get an earlier flight I could not be guaranteed a seat on my confirmed flight.
I thought the risk too great and so stuck with my original flight.
Flights to Durban all seemed delayed and in due course my flight showed an hour delay.
This meant that I would not make my connection in Port Elizabeth.
I went to the departure gate and the operator told me to go back out to check-in to seek an alternative routing.
I knew this would be impossible and so feared the worst.
At check in however they told me that the same aircraft would fly both sectors so that although it was delayed I would end up in Duban.Tthe flight duly took off at 3.30pm and arrived in Port Elizabeth at 4.40pm
I and most of my fellow passengers went into the Terminal and straight to departures and reboarded the plane at 5pm.
The captain then announced that due to congestion at Durban airport our flight was further delayed.
At 6.10pm we took off towards Durban but 40 minutes later the captain announced that we would be returning to Port Elizabeth as Durban airport was closed for at least an hour.
He said that we had enough fuel to circle for the hour but if the airport did not reopen then we would not have enough fuel to divert.
All the passengers wanted to circle and then insist on an emergency landing when we would be low on fuel.
However we turned and headed back towards Port Elizabeth.
Then the cabaret started !
A German ticket tout, who had been trying to sell tickets on board, and had 50 other tickets that he had to deliver in Durban, stormed to the front of the plane and demanded to see the Captain.
A hostess refused to let him into the ****pit and he pushed her against the door.
A Male steward then intervened and the German started assaulting him.
The next we knew was that the Captain had declared an Emergency (because of the Air Rage) and that we were landing at the nearest airport which by then was Port Elizabeth.
The annoying thing is that had he declared the emergency 5 minutes earlier we might actually have landed in Durban.
Once back in PE the Police came and took the German away and spent 20 minutes taking statements.
Apparently the German faces up to 15 years in jail !
We were then disembarked into the Terminal.
We were by then resigned to the fact that we would not be in Durban for the game which Kicked off in 40 minutes.
We set up camp in the Terminal and sat down to watch the match on TV.
Apparently Pilots of Private Jets ferrying VIPs to Durban had refused to move their planes to Durban's Old Airport for parking and so there was not space for the scheduled flights.
What annoys me thought is that there are 2 other airports within 90 minutes drive of Duban that we could have been diverted to and still made the game.
I'm now philosophical about the incident as it is the first time in watching Sport abroad (in 38 years) that I have missed the event. The fact that I had a $600 ticket is incidental.
As Tommy Cooper once said "It';s not the Principal, It's the Money!