The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says it suspended the
operations of local airline, Azman Air, to avert a national tragedy and loss of
life which may become inevitable if the airline continues to operate with
disregard for safety procedures.
NCAA Spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said this in a statement on
Friday titled, ‘NCAA Puts The Record Straight On Azman Air Suspension’
He said the civil aviation regulator of the Nigerian
airspace will not be blackmailed and or threatened while carrying out its
statutory responsibility.
NCAA suspended the operations of the airline on Tuesday after the airline suffered three incidents in quick succession. The NCAA had also ordered the airline to undergo a safety audit to determine the root cause(s) of the incidents, and recommend corrective actions to forestall re-occurrence.
Azman in a statement had, however, claimed that the airline
complied with safety standards, and was safe.
But in the statement on Friday, the NCAA said, “Over a
period of about six weeks, Azman Air Boeing 737 aircraft operating scheduled
passenger flights were involved in three separate incidents, resulting in
damage to the aircraft in each case but with no loss of life, for which we are
grateful to God.”
The NCAA also said the Accident Investigation Bureau is
currently investigating the “serious incidents”, adding that it exercised its
duty as the regulator and sanctioned the engineers of the airline and Azman Air
itself for certain breaches of safety produces but the fines were yet to be
paid.
“The alarming trend of tyre failures, in combination with
improper tyre maintenance procedures, are a clear and strong indication of an
accident chain formation in its final stages. There was an urgent need to break
the accident chain before a completely avoidable national tragedy occurs. No
responsible Civil Aviation Authority will fold its arms and wait for the next
incident to occur, perhaps a fatal accident, before taking action,” it added.
“Finally, neither the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority nor
its Director General will succumb to any blackmail and or threat in carrying
out the statutory responsibility of the safety and security oversight, in
addition to the economic regulation, of the civil aviation industry in Nigeria,
as enshrined in the 2006 Civil Aviation Act,” the statement concluded.
Azman Air, which started commercial flight operations in
Nigeria in 2014, has its hub at the Kano airport. The airline has up to seven
aircraft in its fleet which mostly comprise B 737 aircraft. It plies about 10
domestic destinations.
The Nigerian civil airspace has maintained a relatively safe
record in about a decade now. The last air crash involving commercial airplane
in the country was in June 2012 when a Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83
aircraft from Abuja crashed near the Lagos airport while attempting an
emergency landing, killing all 153 souls on board and six on the ground.
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