Johannesburg/London - South African authorities on Tuesday announced the formation of a special task team to tackle drug smuggling through the country's airports.

The announcement follows the discovery by authorities at London's Heathrow airport Monday of five kilogrammes of cocaine in luggage allegedly belonging to South African Airways (SAA) crew.

The find is the second such case of alleged drug smuggling by SAA

crew through Heathrow in less than a month.

In a joint statement, SAA, the Airports Company of South Africa and South African police said the task team would review security measures at airports and identify risk areas for drug smuggling.

Fifteen crew members - 12 cabin crew and three cockpit crew - were arrested off an SAA flight from Johannesburg at Heathrow on Monday after the cocaine was allegedly found in a crew bus.

All 15 were later released on unconditional bail but were ordered to return to report back to police at Heathrow in April.

SAA said it was cooperating with both British and South African authorities in their investigations.

South Africa's airport security was first thrown into the spotlight last month when officials at Heathrow discovered 50 kilogrammes of marijuana and 4 kilogrammes of cocaine in three bags allegedly belonging to SAA crew.

SAA said it had tightened security measures after the first incident, which also saw the 15 crew members arrested and later released on bail, with an order to report back to police in Britain in March.

In that case, a flight attendant was arrested on her return home to South Africa and charged, along with an airport security official, of drug smuggling. The two have since been released on bail.

In that incident, the drugs were found onboard the aircraft. (dpa)