Contaminated fuel: NCAA holds crucial meeting with airlines, oil marketers today

The Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu would today hold a crucial meeting with all the domestic, international airline operators and aviation full suppliers with a view to finding a solution to adulterated or contaminated aviation fuel in the aviation industry.

In a letter dated July 19, 2023, and signed by Director, Airworthiness Standards, Abatan Gbolahan, an engineer would be held on Thursday, July 20^th at 10 am at the DGCA’s conference room, Abuja.

The meeting is expected to discuss how to prevent contamination of jet fuel with a view to preventing situations that may lead to accidents or serious incidents in the sector.

Nuhu had in the wake of the discovery of over 200 litres of water in the tank of Max Air and its subsequent grounding, assured that the aviation regulatory agency would get to the root of the matter by determining how water got into the fuel tank of a Max Air’s B737 aircraft.

Capt Musa Nuhu said it is solely the duty of the captain of an aircraft and the airline to check that the fuel they get is not contaminated, just as the aviation agency has commenced a full-blown investigation into unraveling the circumstances that made nearly a drum of water to be found in the fuel tank of a Max Air’s B737 airplane in Yola, Adamawa State.

Nuhu in a virtual meeting he held with journalists last week promised to set up a meeting with the airlines’ representative body, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) with a view for them to testing the quality of fuel they dispense into their aircraft tanks, warning that at the end of the investigation, it won’t fail to punish severely MAX Air or the oil marketer should either of them is found guilty of the contamination.

“We are going to review all the marketers and withdraw their licence to sell jet fuel if we find them wanting. If the problem is from MAX Air, we will take appropriate action and if it is from the oil marketer, we will also take appropriate action as well”.

Nuhu, in a hurriedly put together virtual meeting with aviation correspondents late Thursday to inform the public of the steps taken to get to the root of the ‘embarrassing’ incident, said, “It is the responsibility of the airline and the captain of a flight to check that the fuel he gets is free of contamination.”

He disclosed that the aircraft was grounded after it was ferried to Kaduna from Yola where the discovery was made, stressing that the regulatory body had started working with Max Air, the marketer that supplied the fuel to the airline and to check if there was culpability of poor storage by the fueller.

Nuhu further stated that immediately after the incident came to the knowledge of the NCAA, it dispatched its inspectors to Yola, and started an investigation over a week ago when the incident occurred.

Wole Shadare