Louis Ibah
After the successful audit of the engines of the Boeing B737 aircraft type used by local airlines in Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday issued an emergency directive to all airline operators urging them to comply with the recently released United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Emergency Airworthiness Directive to forestall further air accident in the country.
The NCAA in an All Operators Letter (AOL) 070 made available to journalists said its directive was an aftermath of a recent incident involving a South West Airlines Flight 1380 (American Carrier) in which one of its Boeing 737 aircraft engines exploded mid-air and the attendant Airworthiness Directives issued by FAA.
The AOL, which was endorsed by Mr. Kayode Ajiboye on behalf of Capt Muhtar Usman, Director General of NCAA dated April 23, 2018 and was addressed to all airlines and aircraft owners for immediate compliance.
“Upon the receipt of FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive AD 2018-09-51, NCAA swung into action by carrying out a review on all the airlines to determine the operators of aircraft type with CFM56-7B engines that are essentially affected by the FAA circular,” said NCAA’s spokesman, Mr. Sam Adurogboye.
“It was established that only two local airline operators have the aircraft type in question in their fleet but the good news is that they are yet to reach the 30,000 cycles to which the emergency FAA airworthiness directive requires immediate ultrasonic inspection of the fan blades within 20 days,” he added.
According to Adurogboye, NCAA has also notified Nigerian operators with this aircraft type about this development to enable them carry out the required inspection when it is eventually due.