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NCAA’s fine is in bad faith-FirstNation
*Maintains pilot has valid licence, files appeal
First Nation Airways has expressed surprised over the fine meted to it, saying the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) statement that was released today that contained a sanction was done in bad faith.
It said the statement was silent on the fact that that the carrier had immediately filed an appeal against the sanctions in accordance with the requirements of Nig. CARs 1.10 .
The carrier in a statement signed by its spokesman, Rasheed Yusuf said the fact that NCAA elected to go public on a Sunday, without any need to rush to media and by deliberately withholding the fact that, “we have appealed the sanctions in accordance with the relevant regulation is in bad faith and showed the Authority’s tendency of regulation by media in a very sensitive industry”.
His words, “It is our position that on the on the day that the said flight was ramp inspected, the Captain had a valid medical license. We have also drawn NCAA’s attention to the need to address the bureaucracy associated with the general license and medical renewals process with the authority.”
He disclosed that the company would cooperate with NCAA in working to improve the current challenges with respect to License renewal, adding that the airline admit no wrong doing and despite this position consider the level of financial fine arbitrary and at variance with the levels set out in the relevant section of Nig.CARs.
To him, the essence of Nig. CARs is corrective rather than cause airline injury, explaining that they would be working the appeal and review of the sanction with NCAA.
“Firstnation is committed to best industry practice and respect for regulation and take the safety seriously. Our high safety standard is attested by the fact that the Airline is IATA-IOSA certified, the first Airlines to achieve IOSA certification among the ten Africa airlines selected by IATAIATF in 2014.”
The NCAA had earlier today imposed N33.5M fine on the carrier and one of its pilots over alleged violation of safety regulations.
The sanction was conveyed in a Letter conveying the penalties, which ordered the airline to pay a sum of N32,000,000 only while the Pilot – in – Command (PIC) of the Aircraft, will pay N1,500,000 only.
According to the Letter, “during a Ramp Inspection on your Airbus A319 Aircraft with registration mark 5N-FNE at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA),it was discovered that the PIC was not in personal possession of a current medical certificate neither was it readily accessible.” Consequent upon this, a Letter Of Investigation [LOI] was sent to the Airline and the Pilot.”
The NCAA however added that the pilot in their response admitted violating Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) while the airline demonstrated lack of thorough knowledge of the requirements of the regulations.
NCAA stated that with that, the airline has therefore contravened the regulations by allowing a flight crew member to be rostered to operate a total of 16 nos scheduled flights on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th November, 2016,adding that these operations were carried out while his medical certificate had expired since on the November 1, 2016, thereby rendering his Pilot License subsequently invalid from that date.
