Flight SA9053, which was a passenger flight from Accra, Ghana, to Johannesburg, had water in its fuel, which could have caused both engines to flame out and crash. It should have been diverted, but wasn't.

Over its 88-year history, SAA has been one of the more dangerous airlines in the world. Compared to Qantas with its famous (but spurious) claim never to have written off an airliner, let alone killed a passenger, SAA has had a fearful toll of fatal crashes. Think back to the Helderberg disaster off Mauritius; the Boeing 707 that crashed at Windhoek; and barely a year before that, the Viscount Rietbok that crashed into the sea off East London.

After the Helderberg disaster, the airline put in a marathon effort to improve safety and its flight operations department came to be seen as one of the best in the world. But now, as SAA V2.0, the flight operations department is quietly accumulating blunders. As isolated incidents, these blunders may not be significant, but together they pile up to the moment when the airline's luck runs out.

There have been a number of warning signs. A year ago there was the "alpha floor incident" of the vaccine...