A South African Airways pilot stripped to his underwear in front of crew and passengers in protest over rigorous airport searches.
Captain W Van Ginkel, who was about to board the airline’s Flight SA 025 jet to fly to Johannesburg, reportedly removed all his clothes except his pants at Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe.
He was immediately arrested for incident exposure, meaning 90 passengers were delayed for five hours while a new pilot was called in.
The incident happened after the metal detector beeped as the captain walked through it – so he was asked to remove his shoes and try again, but it still beeped, according to NewZimbabwe.com.
He was then asked to remove his belt, but the detector went off again.
As security officials frisked Ginkel, he became frustrated and stripped down to his pants – in front of staff, crew and passengers.
The pilot walked through the metal detector, but was arrested by pilot for indecent exposure.
A police spokesman said Ginkel was later fined for ‘criminal nuisance’ and released.
The airline was forced to call in another pilot as Ginkel was judged unstable to proceed with the flight.
The incident, which happened Tuesday morning, caused a five-hour delay of the flight.
A spokesman for the airline Tlali Tlali said: ‘We regret the incident and we would like to apologise to our passengers and our stakeholders at large.
‘This is a matter which the airline will investigate in order to fully understand the circumstances that led to the detention of our crew member.
‘Once we have all the information, we will decide on what course of action to take.
‘We cannot apologise enough to our passengers for the inconvenience caused by the late departure of SA 025 from Harare to Johannesburg.’
