Plane and Ladder in Bauchi

Aviation experts as well as ordinary citizens in Nigeria were horrified last week when pictures first posted on the social media showed passengers alighting from a plane via a makeshift ladder. Before long the pictures were trending on Twitter and Facebook. National and international television stations soon showed clips of passengers disembarking via a ladder. The plane turned out to be an Aero Contractors Boeing 737-500 on a chartered flight to Bauchi's brand new airport. The airline soon owned up, saying it allowed a ladder to be used to because the passengers brought pressure to bear on it.

With the federal government threatening to deal with the airline over the incident Aero issued a statement blaming unserviceable equipment at the airport. It said, "A special charter flight operated by Aero to Bauchi had problems with unserviceable equipment by the airport management in disembarking 34 passengers from Abuja. Consequently against the airline's wish and operation safety guideline, the passengers used a ladder to disembark. Aero wishes to state that it took adequate safety measures for this operation, including the airport's ground staff crew to handle the air stairs equipment in Bauchi. Unfortunately it became unserviceable at the point of disembarkation. Although the airline crew tried to calm down the passengers to wait while the equipment was being fixed, the passengers insisted on their own volition to disembark against all safety protocol of the airline."

The passengers' eagerness to disembark by ladder was understandable because they chartered a plane in order to attend a wedding ceremony in Bauchi and they were about to miss it even though they had arrived in the town. Yet, allowing them to disembark by ladder contravened Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority Regulation Part 9 on Air Operator Certification and Administration. Part 9.2.4.1.(a) of the regulation states, "Each AOC holder shall maintain operational and airworthiness support facilities at the main operating base, appropriate for the area and type of operation and (b) Each AOC holder shall arrange appropriate ground handling facilities at each airport used to ensure the safe servicing and loading of its flights."

It was no small wonder that the N12 billion Bauchi Airport with all its gleaming facilities lacks elementary equipment for disembarking passengers. It is not enough to build an airport but efforts must be made to ensure that such airports as we now have in most states of the federation have the necessary facilities to be able to operate safely.

After a quick investigation, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority imposed what it called an applicable sanction on Aero Contractors in line with Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations. NCAA's Acting General Manager, Public Relations Sam Adurogboye said, "NCAA has imposed an applicable sanction on Aero Contractors Airlines in line with Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs)."

NCAA's Director General Capt. Muhtar Usman said in a letter that Aero Contractors' action in allowing the use of a ladder to disembark passengers from a Boeing 737-500 aircraft in a non-emergency situation is contrary to its approved aircraft handling manual. "Therefore this is a violation of Part 9.2.4.2(b) of Nig.CARs which part attracts a civil penalty. In view of the safety implications of your action you are hereby sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of Part 20.2.3(15) of the Nig.CARs. Although the incident did not result in any mishap, the aircraft is airworthy and the crew well qualified to operate the flight. However, it is viewed as a breach and resultantly a fine running into millions of naira has been clamped on the airline to serve as deterrence and to forestall any similar infraction by any other airline operator."

The Flight Captain was similarly fined for failing to comply with the provisions contained in the aircraft manual. The fine imposed by NCAA was not disclosed but it is our hope that it is stringent enough to deter other airlines from reversing the gains made in the nation's aviation industry in recent times.

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By 9jatravel / Administrator, bbp_keymaster

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on Jan 04, 2016

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