He said there were no checks and balances to verify the authenticity of the request to allow the Gupta family to land the plane.

"There were no checks and balances that is now the problem we are faced with here. It is due to the nature of the request in general ... This incident for me is a symptom of an absence of a coordinated interdepartmental arrangement to coordinate and coherently deal with the RSA05 [diplomatic requests]," he said.

"In this space, arrangements are hinged on trust and integrity. Initially, when I tried to categorise the type of requests that come in, the environment from where that information is activated, the right information has to come through otherwise it contaminates the whole process. There are no checks and balances from the point where that information comes into the defence force."