Olorogun Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development
*** The Captain of United Nigeria Airline Flight “NUA 0504” of Sunday, 26th November 2023, was directed to Asaba at take off from MMA2, Ikeja, Lagos
*** Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, NSIB, to release findings in ten days
*** Henceforth, all operators in a wet lease arrangement must shop for a Nigerian as First Officer
*** Operator found disregarding Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, NCARs, will have its operating certificates withdrawn
*** NCAA pledges it will leave no stone unturned to sustain the lofty safety standard Nigeria has attained
*** For delays and cancellations, the government will soon launch a modus Operandi that will make passenger compensation inevitable
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Olorogun Festus Keyamo, has called for the inclusion of indigenes among the flight crew of wet-leased aircraft to be put into service on Nigeria’s airspace, henceforward.
The suspension of wet lease operations until after deliberation with all concerned operators was a sequel to the Abuja bound United Nigeria Airline flight yesterday, Sunday 26th November, which took off from MMA2 Ikeja, Lagos, but made a stopover in Asaba neither to pick up passengers nor to disembark anyone on board.
In its reaction as the regulatory authority for air transport in Nigeria, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, said in respect to the United Nigeria Airline’s flight, NUA 0504, of yesterday Sunday 26th November that, preliminary steps have been taken pending the conclusions of an ongoing investigation.
The media statement signed by the Director General Civil Aviation, DGCA, Capt Musa Nuhu, of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, said it has commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident “and the confusion it has created in the public domain”.
The media statement said, “Preliminary steps have been taken pending conclusions of the ongoing investigation”.
NCAA however “reassures the traveling public that it will leave no stone unturned as it has always done in the past to ensure continued safety of the aviation industry”.
The Minister however announced that the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, NSIB, had begun an investigation into the incident and its findings will be made public in ten days.
Keyamo also disclosed thus; “We have listened to the transcript from the plane. It was clear that the pilot was directed to Asaba from Lagos”, the Minister said.
He also volunteered one of the possible underlying factors for the incident thus, “It is a question of a wet lease where the plane’s pilot and crew are foreigners because they came with the plane. The pilot didn’t know the route”.
The aviation minister however made a regulatory pronouncement by directing that, “Henceforth, all wet lease coming into Nigeria must have a Nigeria pilot sitting at the cockpit. We have also decided that a wet lease must have Nigerians as cabin crew.”
An excellent manner of bringing additional benefits to Nigerians and promoting safety, in what is usually the exclusive preserve of the lessor as he is traditionally expected in addition to providing the aircraft, more often provides the crew, maintenance, and insurance, ACMI.
.
About Post Author
