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Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
A FASTJet plane from Harare with passengers on board failed to land at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo (JMN) International Airport in Bulawayo on Tuesday evening due to a power failure at the airport.

The plane was forced to return to Harare after pilots said they could not land because of poor visibility.

Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) chief executive officer and general manager Mr David Chawota confirmed the incident yesterday.

He said an electrical fault affected the power system at the airport.

“I received a report that a FastJet plane was forced to fly back to Harare after it failed to land in Bulawayo due to power failure at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo airport. A Zesa fault affected the airport power system resulting in a black out that made it impossible to land,” said Mr Chawota.

FastJet general manager Mr Ed Barry said the power cut disrupted flight schedules and inconvenienced customers.

“I received the report that the Bulawayo lights were down and the plane couldn’t land so it had to fly back to Harare. I don’t have full details but it was quite disappointing because our flights were disrupted and our customers were inconvenienced.

“I’m yet to find out why there’s no backup power at the Bulawayo airport,” said Mr Barry.

Meanwhile, Air Zimbabwe, which had suspended flights up to mid-January due to maintenance works, has resumed flights, but sometimes relies on FastJet.

– @pamelashumba1.