This weekend, the Springboks played the All Blacks in the second test match of the historic ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’ tour. But the world wasn’t raving about the Springboks’ stunning win; it was the Airlink flyover above the DHL Stadium that had everyone talking.  

The flyover was featured on the BBC, Fox News, Sky News, and even made the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post – but for South Africans, it was just another Bok game. 

While the world seemed mortified by what it deemed “dangerous” and what the New York Post described as “could’ve been catastrophic,” South Africans flew above the catastrophising headlines.  

All three offer lessons: the global backlash, Airlink’s response, and South Africa’s own. 

Lesson 1: Clickbait 

Any die-hard rugby fans would know that flyovers have been as much a part of a Springbok game as the anthem since the iconic 1995 flyover by SAA above Ellis Park Stadium. If you don’t know that, a headline saying a jet passed 14 metres above 60,000 people is going to frighten you, and it’s meant to. 

A tabloid’s job is to buy attention with as few words as possible. There is no headline in ‘two Embraer E-Jets flew a flypast for which the South African Civil Aviation Authority and Air Traffic Navigation Services had given guidance, approval and support, at roughly 150 knots, planned and rehearsed in advance by experienced crews, and then landed safely.’ There is one, though, in a short clip captioned with the most alarming words available. Catastrophising gets clicks; facts rarely do.  

Lesson 2: How to put out a flame 

When the international press turns on you, the instinct is to hand it a scalp: a grovelling apology, a suspended sponsorship, a review announced for the sake of announcing something. Airlink, however, did the opposite. Spokesperson Linden Birns said the airline had volunteered its flight data to the SACAA “on its own initiative” so the regulator could independently verify that the flypast was flown in line with its authorisation, and that Airlink would “refrain from making any further comments while the SACAA reviews the flight data.”  

Airlink quickly realised the audience they really needed to hear their statement was the one that has seen many Springbok game flyovers, and is more pressed by a taxi riding too close to their tail. They said what was necessary to the people whose job it is to judge it. 

Lesson 3: Flying above the noise 

As Darren “Wackhead” Simpson himself put it, suddenly “everyone is an aviation expert.” Almost nobody is. South Africans did, however, have context: thirty years of Springbok game flyovers, and the knowledge that they are planned, rehearsed, and approved. Strip that away, and the footage looks like a near miss. Keep it, and you are watching two incredibly skilled pilots do something difficult, properly. That is what discernment looks like: working out what happened, and who is qualified to say so, before deciding how alarmed to be.  

Seeing the wood for the trees is a professional skill, and it’s the first thing lost when a story moves faster than the facts. South Africans managed it this weekend because we knew what we were looking at. When the incentive is clicks rather than accuracy, reading above the chaos and applying discernment is what will set you apart. 

– Erin Dodo
Account Executive