THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN

SAA chief pilot Vusi Khumalo is on cloud nine after bringing SA citizens back from Covid-19-stricken Wuhan

- GABISILE NGCOBO

HE DIDN’T need any convincing to fly into what’s become known as the heart of the deadly Covid-19 outbreak. The moment he received the call he knew it was something he needed to do for his country.

In fact, he’d do it again in a heartbeat even though he’s now in isolation for 21 days to ensure he hasn’t contracted the virus that’s killed thousands of people around the globe.

We’re chatting to SAA chief pilot Vusi Khumalo a day after he landed the plane bringing 114 South Africans back from Wuhan, China. The 54-year-old has joined the repatriated citizens at The Ranch Resort in Limpopo but he’s in high spirits as he tells us about the flight that gripped the nation.

He can’t take all the credit, he says, modest to a fault. “I know that people see my face but there were a lot of people involved in this mission. It was a team effort.”

He and his team did lots of research beforehand because they were told they might have to fly to China to retrieve their countrymen, he says.

So when President Cyril Ramaphosa made the decision the South Africans in Wuhan would be brought home, Vusi was ready.

“I said, ‘Let’s do all we can to help the president keep his promise to the people of South Africa’,” he says.

He was at home in Cape Town with his wife and kids when he got the call to pilot the plane. Although it was a military operation, the air force doesn’t have an aircraft that’s big enough so they had to rely on an SAA Airbus A340600 manned by Vusi and his crew.