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Max Air: Cycle of incidents

In the final days of December 2024, the aviation industry faced seven alarming incidents across countries, including Kazakhstan, South Korea, Canada, Norway, Germany, and UAE.
The New Year continued with a series of scary incidents and accidents including so many technical issues necessitating air returns, which have put the sector at home and overseas on the edge.
The frequent aircraft incidents in Nigeria have equally raised concern for an industry that operates lesser aircraft frequency than in many other busy airports.
The frequency of the incidents has raised safety concerns and helped to raise questions among stakeholders about the oversight function of the aviation regulatory body and the internal appraisal of safety by the operators.
There is mounting concern over the frequent air incidents involving local airlines in the last year.
Concern over these life-threatening incidents has led to a call for industry regulators to enforce safety standards and operators to comply with them.
The latest serious incident involving Max Air’s B737-400 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) has led to scrutiny and call for the overhaul of the airline industry.
Before now, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had commenced organizational risk profiles for each scheduled operator, including Max Air.
After the incident, Max Air announced a suspension of its operations for three months to appraise its operations.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu disclosed that the audit the agency was carrying out was the economic audit that would critically examine the financial health of the airline to guarantee its capability to sustain safe flight operations, just as the resumption of Max Air’s domestic flight operations he said would be predicated on the satisfactory completion of this audit.
He explained that during the three-month suspension period which commences on January 1, 2025, the NCAA will conduct a thorough safety and economic audit on Max Air, stressing that the audit would examine the airline’s organization, procedures, personnel, and aircraft.
Max Air has been in the eyes of the storm because of the so many incidents the airline has been involved drawing the curiosity of stakeholders that something could be wrong with the carrier’s safety procedure.
On July 11, 2023, a separate flight was forced to abort takeoff due to high exhaust gas temperature, while another flight returned to Abuja mid-air due to a cockpit duct overheat indication. These repeated failures led to the NCAA’s directive to ground Max Air’s Boeing 737 fleet temporarily in July 2023.
On July 21, four tyres of a Boeing 737 aircraft belonging to the airline burst in Yola with 119 passengers and six crew members aboard, leading to a take-off rejection.
Ten minutes into take-off on December 5, fire erupted in a Max Air aeroplane’s engine in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Umar Usman Kadafur, the deputy governor of Borno State, was among the over 70 passengers aboard the aircraft. The incident was said to have been caused by a bird strike.
Incidentally, the said aircraft, a Boeing 737, was the same involved in the Tuesday incident.
Aside from Max Air, other carriers have been involved in many runway incursions and excursions leading to substantial damage to equipment but no fatalities.
On December 11th, an Allied Air Cargo freighter aircraft overran the runway at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV) in Abuja, Nigeria.
The aircraft allegedly experienced a failure in its landing gear, which caused the eventual runway excursion during the landing. The aircraft in question was a B737-400 freighter operated by Allied Air,
According to multiple sources, a Boeing 737 freighter operated by Allied Air overran the main runway at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV) in Abuja, Nigeria.
The aircraft was descending to the main runway of the Abuja airport, which is an 11,844-foot-long runway made of asphalt, at approximately 10:00 local time.
The landing gear failure caused the aircraft to overrun the main runway at the Abuja airport. Emergency crews immediately responded to the aircraft and evacuated all crew members on the aircraft. There were five crew members on the aircraft and all were safely evacuated.
Max Despite these concerns, Nigeria’s airspace has been adjudged as one of the safest, ranking amongst many others across the globe.
Additionally, the incident caused significant disruptions to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. Many departures were delayed, and several arriving aircraft were forced to divert to nearby airports.
The runway was cleared after approximately six hours, clearing the way for aircraft to begin departing from the runway.
Max Air’s situation underscores the need for the NCAA to adopt a more proactive regulatory approach. Aviation experts assert that the NCAA must not treat safety audits as a mere formality.
Rather, continuous enforcement of corrective measures is essential to ensuring long-term safety compliance.
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