Three incidents, in fast succession, have introduced the Nigerian airspace and operations below security scrutiny. Whereas all of the incidents are below investigation and Max Air’s operations suspended, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) reactionary strategy to security audits of economic carriers is unsettling stakeholders.
Three severe incidents occurred within the final one week. It began with the American United Airways flight UAL 613 that departed Lagos en path to Washington Dulle, making an air return following a technical difficulty and lack of altitude over Côte d’Ivoire’s airspace and nearly three hours after takeoff.
The airplane had 245 adults and 11 crew members onboard. Based on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), 4 passengers and two crew members sustained severe accidents, and an extra 27 passengers and 5 crew members had minor accidents.
On Tuesday night time, a Max Air plane with registration marks 5N-MBD suffered a tyre burst on touchdown at Mallam Aminu Kano Worldwide Airport, Kano, on Tuesday, twenty eighth January 2025, at about 2251 hours. All 58 passengers onboard have been safely rescued.
day later, a trainee plane belonging to the Nigerian Faculty of Aviation Expertise (NCAT) skidded off the runway on Wednesday after touchdown on the NCAT airstrip. A supply near the school instructed our correspondent that there was no substantial harm to the plane, and the scholar pilot was doing high-quality.
Whereas all three incidents are nonetheless being investigated by the Nigeria Security Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and might not be instantly associated, all of them mix to boost recent security issues for stakeholders, together with the apex regulator, the NCAA.
Director of Client Safety and Public Affairs on the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, reiterated that the particular causes of this incident might solely be established after the NSIB has carried out its investigation.
Within the interim, he mentioned that the NCAA had commenced organisational threat profiles for every scheduled operator, together with Max Air, which is nearing its conclusion.
“Nevertheless, on account of this incident, Max Air is suspending its home flight operations for 3 months, efficient from midnight, thirty first January, 2025, to permit for an inner appraisal of its operations by its administration.
“Throughout this three-month interval, the NCAA will conduct a radical security and financial audit on Max Air. The security audit will entail a re-inspection of Max Air’s organisation, procedures, personnel and plane as specified by Half 1.3.3.3(b) of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Rules, whereas the financial audit will critically look at the monetary well being of the airline to ensure its functionality to maintain protected flight operations.
“The resumption of Max Air’s home flight operations will probably be predicated on the passable completion of this audit,” Achimugu mentioned. Max Air has certainly recorded a number of severe incidences within the current occasions. On July 22, 2024, a Boeing 737 (5N-ADB) skilled a rear gear tyre burst throughout takeoff from Yola Airport. The incident escalated as two extra tyres burst whereas the plane tried to taxi off the runway.
On Might 7, 2023, Max Air Yola–Abuja plane misplaced its most important touchdown gear wheel mid-flight. On July 7, 2023, gasoline contamination was found in one other Boeing 737-300 (5N-MHM) at Yola Airport, additional exposing the airline’s upkeep vulnerabilities.
On July 11, 2023, a separate flight was pressured to abort takeoff on account of excessive exhaust gasoline temperature, whereas one other flight returned to Abuja mid-air on account of a cockpit duct overheat indication. These repeated failures led to the NCAA’s directive to quickly floor Max Air’s Boeing 737 fleet in July 2023.
The previous Commandant of the Lagos Airport within the 90s, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), reckoned that there was nothing within the airline suspending its operations, although NCAA ought to have taken proactive motion on the airline after the reported incidents in Maiduguri earlier than the final severe incident in Kano.
“The airline’s motion would in all probability be in accordance with its Operations (Security) Programmes authorised by the NCAA. So, the motion of the airline may be very applicable. What I feel is inappropriate is an NCAA Audit now. No!
“NCAA can solely conduct Checks or Inspections. Audits are periodically regulated, which should have been finished prior to now, or the time is but to come back. If the time is coincident with the time of the intense incident, the NCAA must watch for the NSIB Report. In any other case, it’s preempting the report that’s more likely to implicate it (NSIB),” Ojikutu mentioned.
A former Rector of the Nigerian Faculty of Aviation Expertise (NCAT), Zaria, Capt. Samuel Caulcrick, nonetheless, mentioned that it was within the purview of the airline to voluntarily droop its operations on account of lack of capability or some other purpose.
Aside from the voluntary suspension of operations by airways, Caulcrick additionally mentioned that the NCAA was apparently poor in surveillance, including that the regulatory physique was supposed to hold out common financial and operational audits of each airline holding its Air Operator’s Certificates (AOCs) and licenses.
He mentioned: “If you difficulty an AOC, you’re supposed to hold out oversight of their features frequently. You don’t have to attend for one thing to occur or each two years. The job of the regulator is to be on the sector, however right here, we’re within the workplaces. You need to be with them. That’s what surveillance is all about,” Caulcrick mentioned.
