At last, Medview begins airlift of stranded London, Lagos passengers

Blames accident at Gatwick airport, CAA for situation

Stranded Medview passengers eventually heaved a sigh of relief as the carrier today commenced airlift of stranded passengers both in Lagos and London days after they were left stranded.

This is coming as the airline attributed flights the disruption by the accident at Gatwick airport, which it said, “affected other airlines”, and also the inability of the civil aviation authority to grant the necessary permits over the weekend for charter flights to clear the backlog of passengers.

The spokesman for the carrier, Mr. Obuke Oyibhota kept sealed lips when Woleshadare.net inquired on whether it was the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) or the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that refused to grant the carrier permit on the aircraft it leased after the sole airplane it operated between Lagos and London had an incident.

He simply said, “I don’t want to mention the CAA. Don’t drag me into this issue. Just take the statement I have sent to you.

Investigation by our correspondent indicated that both the UK CAA and the NCAA are working together to ensure that the issue that led to the ban of the carrier over poor documentation does not happen again and they are patient now to scrutinise the carrier’s leased airplane.

It would be recalled that penultimate month, the airline was barred from the European airspace by the European Union Safety Committee of the European Commission (EC) aftermath of a failed application by Medview Airlines for a third country operator authorisation to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said the application failed during the verification of documents submitted by the airline which were found to be non-compliant with regulation (EC) No 2111/2005 and therefore could not qualify for approval.

The NCAA thereafter received the notification of non-compliance through the office of the Nigerian Mission to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The carrier disclosed that the the first batch of passengers from London Gatwick arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos aboard a B767 aircraft yesterday at 7.30 am.

It further explained that same aircraft is positioned to take passengers from Lagos to London on Tuesday night.

The airline’s B747 aircraft will enter serviceTuesday night with another flight from London, arriving Lagos in the early hours of Wednesday.

In a statement, the airline said it will resume its normal three weekly flights schedule on Wednesday.