Louis Ibah
A spate of near-crashes involving some of Nigeria’s local airlines in recent months has forced the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to commence the audit of the local airline industry.
Daily Sun learnt that the audit will involve all local airline operators including those licensed to undertake commercial scheduled passenger flights and those that operate unscheduled or chatter flights. It was also learnt that the audit was primarily geared at identifying all potential problems in each of the airlines before they have an impact on the safety of aircraft and on passengers and crew.
Focus of audit
Daily Sun learnt that the ongoing audit would focus essentially on the state of air worthiness of the aircraft deployed by local operators for the airlift of persons for both commercial and charter services. It will also cover the audit of the processes put in place internally by the airlines to ensure that it’s operations are conducted in line with global best safety and security standards. The competences of such airline employees as pilots, aeronautical engineers, safety officers, security personnel, cabin crew, and baggage handling staff would also be examined by the team of auditors from the NCAA.
It was also learnt that the NCAA has been under pressure from some concerned stakeholders to probe the finances of the airlines as it is widely held that most safety compromises are carried out by management or staff of financially distressed airlines. In the recent past, an audit by the NCAA had revealed that due to paucity of funds, some airlines were found flying aircraft with expired insurance licences, employing pilots with expired medical certificates to fly their aircraft, with delays in ferrying aircraft that were due for mandatory maintenances and C-checks abroad. In the same vein, all manner of compromises were linked to staff of some of the airlines that were owed arrears of salaries, including engaging in illegal drug trafficking and aiding stowaways.
Audit will help airlines
Chairman of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Capt. Nogie Meggison, told Daily Sun that local operators had welcomed the audit with excitement given its inherent benefits to the industry. The AON boss described the audit as “an improvement procedure that was without any punitive intent to any of the airlines.”
“I got a letter from the NCAA that they had taken actions independently even ahead of calls by the executive and legislative arms of government to audit the airlines,” said Meggison.
“It’s not just an audit of one airline, but it covers everybody in the industry. And it is not aimed at punishing any airline, but the NCAA explained that the audit is an improvement procedure and that airlines found with gaps would be given time to close those gaps, usually 30-40 days. No airline is going to be sanctioned,” said Meggison.
It was learnt that the audit had become necessary following fears expressed by the Federal Government and some passengers on the health of the aircraft flown in the country and the need to take urgent steps to avert a major air accident in the country. For instance, many passengers have refused to believe that all could be well with an aircraft whose emergency doors would fall off while taxing on the runway and the aircraft would skid off the runway while attempting to land as was the case with the Dana Air incident at the Abuja airport. There have also been the rising incidences of attacks on the luggage compartment and heist of passengers’ luggage as airlines taxes along the runways with allegations that such acts could be carried out by disenchanted staff of the affected airlines.
“The NCAA is doing the audit so that there can be improvement. The audit will restore confidence in the system and it is welcomed by all airline operators,” Meggison added.
Local airlines to be subjected to the audit include, Dana Air, Air Peace, Med-View Airline, Overland, Azman Air, Arik Air, and First Nation.