Knee-jerk reactions expose aviation soft underbelly

The past week witnessed one of the best confusion ever witnessed in the country’s aviation sector over United Nigeria’s mistaken flight to Asaba. The NCAA and by extension, the Minister panicked over what should just have gone as one of the mistaken flights. The reaction sent a wrong signal to investors and the global aviation industry, writes, WOLE SHADARE

Difficult week

The past week was awash with an incident involving an incident involving United Nigeria flight originally destined for Abuja but ended up in Asaba, Delta State in what is a case of mistaken flight plan.

A common joke in the entire country is for people to ask the pilot if the aircraft is going to their destination. The joke has reverberated around the sector; an indication that the entire aviation industry is not safe or one that is very challenged beyond redemption.

The country’s aviation sector is indeed undergoing fundamental changes but not one that should cause panic for any passenger because of the impeccable safety record recorded by the sector.

The matter was not helped by the knee-jerk reaction coming from the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo who made pronouncements in the wake of the incident to further heighten concern on something that should have been carefully managed.

Panic button

In the face of the confusion, the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu pressed the panic button on an issue that was serious but not grave in any way because aviation in many parts of the world had witnessed even worse situations that were not given the kind of attention it required.

Not a few were surprised that the DG of the NCAA could panic that much to reel out new reforms. Others are of the view that Nuhu could not have kept quiet in the face of the confusion that trailed the incident.

He said that the preliminary assessment by the authority showed that what happened last week Sunday was related to a lack of familiarity with the operational environment by the wet-leased aircraft flight crew.

The Director-General of NCAA, in a circular to all airlines’ directors of Operations with reference, NCAA/DGCA/AIR/11/16/347, entitled, “Wet Lease Operations in Nigeria-Flight Crew Qualification”, dated November 28, 2023stated that while the authority is investigating these incidents to determine their root causes, it had taken some actions to curb the trend of the occurrences including the suspension of some of the wet-leased operations connected to the recent incidents.

Nuhu lamented that the authority observed that some Nigerian Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders may not have been providing adequate guidelines and supervision over the lessors.

Aside from that, he disclosed that the NCAA equally observed that wet lease arrangements are made at short notice by the Nigerian AOC holders without adequate time allocation to train and familiarize the lessors’ flight crew with the AOC operations specifications, routes, aerodromes, terrains, and operations in the Nigerian airspace including weather as the operational requirements of Nig.CARs 8.10.1.30.

Based on this, the NCAA according to its Director-General hereby reminds all AOC holders involved in wet-lease operations that it is their duty and responsibility to ensure the lessors’ flight crew are made familiar with the lessee’s operations within Nigeria including their operations specifications, routes, aerodromes, and company’s indoctrination.

“All AOC holders involved in wet-lease operations are hereby required to ensure the lessor’s flight crew are properly trained and acquainted with the AOC holder’s operational requirements in Nigeria including their Ops Specs, routes, aerodrome including CNS facilities, and company indoctrination”.

“They should ensure no foreign wet-leased aircraft crew are allowed to conduct commercial flight operations to an aerodrome unless they have previously flown there under the supervision of the AOC holder (Lessee). All AOC holders in wet-leased operations are hereby required to provide proof of compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 8.10.1.30 (ICAO Annex 6, Part 1 Chapter 9 as relates to a demonstration of operational competency of navigation over the route and area to be flown and the aerodromes approved for the AOC holder, latest by December 5, 2023”.

The guidelines further stated that early arrangements for future wet leases should be made with potential lessors to ensure that lessors’ flight crew are acquainted, trained, and prepared to operate in Nigerian airspace.

Nuhu warned that failure to comply with the listed requirements will lead to immediate suspension of wet-leased operations and enforcement actions up to and including certificate action.

United Nigeria lied

Again, the airline, United Nigeria Airlines misled the country by attributing the incident to weather when in truth the whole incident exposed the underbelly of the carrier’s obvious lack of coordination in their operations.

Speaking after meeting with heads of aviation agencies over safety concerns, the Minister said there was no bad weather in Abuja, adding that the diversion was purely an administrative issue in United Nigeria.

Replaying what happened, Keyamo explained that the tower kept asking the pilot to confirm again that the plane was heading to Abuja, not Asaba. The pilot replied that he was going to Asaba.

“It was clear that when the pilot was taking off, he was headed to Asaba, not Abuja, whereas the flight was headed to Abuja. There was no weather problem in Abuja. It was a question of a wet lease where the pilot and the crew were all foreigners, not Nigerians.”

It was obvious that the foreign crew was not familiar with the terrain but the wet lease aircraft deal had been on in Nigeria for decades. It was a case of a mix-up with the flight plan and had nothing to do with the weather situation. The pilot of wet lease aircraft does not need to know the terrain as instruments in the aircraft coupled with the effective air navigation system help the pilots to operate aircraft anywhere in the world.

Suspension lifted

The aviation regulatory body had since Friday last week lifted the suspension placed on the Part G operations specifications of a wet leased Airbus aircraft operated by United Nigeria Airlines.

The aviation regulatory body and the Ministry of Aviation are quick to ban airlines for little infractions that do not have serious consequences on safety. It is a rarity to hear of regulatory authorities banning airlines for minor and serious incidents even after investigation of such occurrences.

Familiar cases

In a case of wrong landing event in Branson, Missouri on January 12, 2014, Southwest Airlines flight 4013, a Boeing 737-7H4, N272WN, mistakenly landed at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport (PLK), Branson, Missouri, which was 6 miles (mi) north of the intended destination of Branson Airport (BBG), Branson, Missouri.

The flight had been cleared to land on runway 14 at BBG, which was 7,140 ft long. Instead, the flight landed on runway 12 at PLK, which was 3,738 ft long. There were no injuries to the 124 passengers and seven crewmembers, and the airplane was not damaged. The airplane was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, Illinois. Night visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed at the time.

On November 21, 2013, a Boeing 747-400LCF (Dreamlifter), N780BA, registered to Boeing Aircraft Holding Company, mistakenly landed at Colonel James Jabara Airport (AAO), Wichita, Kansas, instead of its intended destination of McConnell Air Force Base (IAB), Wichita, Kansas. The airplane was being operated under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 121 as a domestic cargo flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, New York, to IAB.

The NTSB acknowledges that flight crews need to remain vigilant and ensure that they are landing at the correct airport. The NTSB issued a safety alert in March 2014 titled, “Landing at the Wrong Airport,” which offers advice to flight crews on how to avoid wrong airport landings.

In 2019, A British Airways plane scheduled to travel from London to Düsseldorf mistakenly flew its passengers to Edinburgh instead.

 

Rather than head east from the City airport across the North Sea into Europe, the plane flew due north to the Scottish capital. But the mistake was only spotted while landing when passengers were welcomed to Edinburgh.

BA said a paperwork error was to blame, with the pilot following orders from Germany, where WDL’s head office had filed the incorrect flight plan.

Expert’s view

The Director-General of Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Akin Olateru, an aircraft engineer said, “These are occurrences that happened a few months ago.  You don’t hear British people rubbishing everybody because of these occurrences.

“Nobody has died from any civil air transport in Nigeria in the last three years. The last one was the helicopter in Opebi. Nine people died from civil air transport in the last nine years. These are verifiable facts. How many countries in the world have this record?

“From the FRSC data, over 300 Nigerians die from road accidents every month. In the US, people die from civil air accidents monthly. Why are we bent on destroying Nigeria’s image and reputation? “This is very unfair,” he added.

Last line

While many ‘experts’ went hysterical in the case of United Nigeria. in all of these, the US FAA didn’t ban any aircraft or operations because of these. Instead, they (NTSB) came up with a safety recommendation to prevent the re-occurrence.

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