{"id":584430,"date":"2026-08-29T23:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584430\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:58:08","slug":"madness-rugby-fans-stunned-by-low-jet-flyovers-in-cape-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584430\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Madness&#8217;: rugby fans stunned by low jet flyovers in Cape Town"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">A pre-match flyover by two jets ahead of the All Blacks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/08\/30\/all-blacks-fall-short-as-desperate-springboks-tie-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">test in Cape Town overnight<\/a> has drawn a mix of admiration and unease, with some questioning how low the aircraft flew over nearly 60,000 spectators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The two custom-painted Embraer aircraft, one green and one black for the two teams, swept over DHL Stadium before kick-off. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Airlink has been the official domestic carrier for the Rugby&#8217;s Greatest Rivalry 2026 tour, ferrying the New Zealand and South African squads between their matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The moment lit up social media, where reactions were divided. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">One fan called it &#8220;incredible&#8221; while another said the pilot&#8217;s moves were &#8220;fabulous&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;South Africa is a movie,&#8221; one said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">A few raised questions about whether the pass was appropriate. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">One commenter on the All Blacks&#8217; Instagram post of the flyover called it &#8220;utter madness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;Never thought a pilot would be the one to end the greatest rivalry in rugby,&#8221; another said on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;That was a light gust of wind away from being an unfathomable disaster. If you nearly tailstrike a stadium, you&#8217;re too low,&#8221; one person said on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Others defended those flying, with one saying pilots &#8220;land full passenger flights in hectic weather conditions on incredibly difficult runways every day of their lives&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Airlink used similarly liveried jets for a formation flyby over Ellis Park earlier in the tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The flyover follows a similar Qatar Airways pass over the same stadium in June last year, and echoes the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, when a South African Airways 747 flew low over Ellis Park bearing the message &#8220;Good Luck Bokke&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Boks square the series on the field<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The test, which started with the low flyover, finished with the Springboks surviving a turbulent last few minutes to hold off the All Blacks 33-26 for a win which squared the series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The Boks will believe they are heading in the right direction after a predictable response to their Johannesburg setback last weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">\u201cYou can\u2019t let the Springboks get ahead like that in the first two minutes and I think we were just chasing the game,\u201d Savea said afterwards. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">\u201cBut I\u2019m very proud of the boys \u2013 we stuck in there, we fought, but we came up short.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">It was All Blacks coach Dave Rennie&#8217;s first loss in charge. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The deciding third test was at Johannesburg&#8217;s FNB Stadium next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pre-match flyover by two jets ahead of the All Blacks test in Cape Town overnight has drawn&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-584430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}