An Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 developed a technical fault yesterday in Bulawayo and travellers were left in a fix after the plane was grounded. The plane was scheduled to ply the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls; Victoria Falls-Harare and later the Harare-Johannesburg routes, but all those could not materialise due to the technical fault.

Airzim Corporate communications officer Firstme Vitori confirmed the incident.

“Yes, it developed a technical fault and our engineers are working on it. There are some parts that we needed to bring from Harare and we are hopeful that tomorrow (today) we will be able to resume our schedules as normal,” she said.

“It was still doing the morning triangle, the Harare-Bulawayo; Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Vic Falls-Harare, and then Johannesburg thereafter.

“Unfortunately, it was only able to do Harare-Bulawayo (route), so Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Bulawayo-Harare was affected as well as Jo’burg (Johannesburg).”

Air Zimbabwe had to hire a small plane to carry the required parts to Bulawayo and incurred expenses to cater for the stranded passengers

The number of affected passengers was not revealed at the time of publication