{"id":666164,"date":"2026-09-01T02:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/666164\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T02:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:28:23","slug":"daring-jet-fly-past-over-springboks-stadium-sparks-heated-debate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/666164\/","title":{"rendered":"Daring jet fly-past over Springboks stadium sparks heated debate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/south-africa\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/south-africa\/\">South African<\/a> airline has defended a daring fly-past over an international rugby match in Cape Town that sparked debate over aviation safety procedures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The incident, which happened above the heads of 56,000 rugby fans, attracted both widespread criticism and admiration online. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed one of the two jets passed less than 15 metres above the top of the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, where South Africa\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/springboks\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/springboks\/\">Springboks<\/a> rugby team was about to take on the New Zealand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/all-blacks\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/all-blacks\/\">All Blacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The lead aircraft, liveried in All Blacks colours, roared above the stadium roof at about 150 knots or 275km\/h, before pitching up as it cleared the arena.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Airplanes fly over the DHL Stadium ahead of the match. Photograph: Inpho\/SteveHaagSports\/Darren Stewart\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4YRNB3Y64BFCAC7JN5RHXEJFRU.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"532\"\/>Airplanes fly over the DHL Stadium ahead of the match. Photograph: Inpho\/SteveHaagSports\/Darren Stewart <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It was followed closely by a second plane, in Springbok colours, which flew through the coloured smoke of pyrotechnics from the stadium room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Airlink, an airline backed by Qatar Airways and which operates about 70 Embraer SA passenger jets, said the manoeuvres on Saturday were conducted by a crew of senior captains in each aircraft, and required \u201ccareful planning and rehearsal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe two aircraft were flown by highly experienced crew, with each comprised of three senior captains operating in the roles of commander, co-pilot and safety\/technical officer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The flights were performed within the local aviation authority\u2019s \u201capproved and rehearsed safety altitude and speed limits\u201d, it said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Airlink had promoted the fly-past on social media in advance, advising spectators to \u201cget your cameras ready\u201d in advance of the kick-off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">South Africa has a history of buzzing sports stadiums with passenger jets, starting at the 1995 Rugby World Cup final in Johannesburg, attended by then-president Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Springboks, the current world champions, beat the All Blacks 33-26. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South African airline has defended a daring fly-past over an international rugby match in Cape Town that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[34133,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,213074,2525,5258,4389,7,8],"class_list":["post-666164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-all-blacks","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-qatar-airways","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-springboks","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117193429391340702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}