SINGAPORE, Dec 14 — A Singapore Airlines flight from Johannesburg to Singapore, SQ481, has faced multiple delays, pushing its departure from December 11 to December 13, Mothership reported today.
This delay follows a similar disruption involving another flight from South Africa earlier in the week, when Singapore Airlines flight SQ479 from Cape Town to Singapore was delayed for approximately 32 hours on December 10 due to a technical fault.
Mothership reported that flight SQ481 was originally scheduled to depart on December 11 at 10:30pm (4:30am Singapore time).
It was first rescheduled to 7am (1pm Singapore time) on December 12, after passengers were informed around 2pm on the 11th that the delay was to allow the airline crew time to rest.
However, when passengers arrived at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg for the revised departure, the flight was delayed again.
Around 11am (5pm SGT) on December 12, passengers were notified that the flight would be further delayed by a full day due to a “technical issue” with the aircraft.
A part had to be flown in from Singapore to complete necessary repairs.
As a result, the flight number was changed to SQ9479.
In a statement to Mothership, a Singapore Airlines spokesman explained that the initial retiming of the flight to December 12 was for operational reasons.
They added that engineers had addressed the issue at the airport, but the discovery of a missing part required additional time.
Passengers were provided with meals and hotel accommodations, they added.
SQ9479 eventually departed Johannesburg at 11:02am (5:02pm Singapore time) on December 13, with a scheduled arrival at Changi Airport at 3:15am Singapore time today.
