The Federal Government on Sunday
impounded an aircraft belonging to a British company, FlairJet for
operating commercial flights into the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport, Lagos despite the ban on such flight operations in Nigerian
airports.
It was gathered that FlairJet operated a
Legacy 600 aircraft with registration G-ERFX into the Lagos airport
after getting approval for humanitarian operations.
It was also learnt that the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority had begun investigations into the matter, as
officials at the agency and the Federal Ministry of Aviation stated that
the aircraft was not cleared for commercial flights.They noted that the country’s airports
were still under lockdown to commercial flight operations, as further
findings would tell why the crew of the impounded plane decided to fly
into Lagos on Sunday.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika,
who announced the seizure via his official Twitter handle on Sunday,
confirmed that the aircraft was only authorised to conduct humanitarian
flights.
Sirika also stated that the impounded
aircraft had no approval outside humanitarian operations but was caught
operating commercial flights.
The minister stressed that in addition to the confiscated aircraft, a “maximum penalty” would be imposed on the company for flouting the shutdown of the country’s airspace by the Federal Government to commercial flight operations.
The Federal Government had shut the country’s airspace as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In his tweet on Sunday, Sirika said,
“COVID-19. Flair Aviation, a UK company, was given approval for
humanitarian operations but regrettably, we caught them conducting
commercial flights.
“This is callous! The craft is
impounded; the crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty.
Wrong time to try our resolve.”
The Federal Government on May 6, 2020,
extended the suspension of both local and international flight
operations in all Nigerian airports by additional four weeks.
The government had in March this year
halted the operations of commercial flights by two weeks, before it
announced additional four-week extension on May 6.
Commercial flight operations, both local
and international, had stopped forthwith but the Federal Government
allowed the operation of essential flights.
Such essential flights include those for
medical and evacuation purposes, among others, as the government had
stated that such flights were subject to the authorisation of the
Federal Ministry of Aviation and agencies under it.
Information still sketchy, says NCAA
When contacted to explain what actually
happened at the Lagos airport, the spokesperson for the NCAA, Sam
Adurogboye, told our correspondent that all the required information
surrounding the incident was still sketchy as of 8.35pm on Sunday.
“I don’t have the details and I’m aware
of the development. I’m still making calls myself; if I have, I will
let you know. I am trying to reach the MD of NAMA, as they are the ones
to brief us more on this,” he stated.
Our correspondent, however, gathered
that the company name of the airline in question was FlairJet with its
office at the Birmingham International Airport in the United Kingdom.
The Director, Public Affairs, Federal
Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu, explained that the airline’s
name/base was earlier under contention because it was mentioned as Flair
Aviation instead of FlairJet.
FG to report incident to British authorities
The spokesman, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Mr Ferdinand Nwonye, said the ministry would report the
incident to the British High Commission after receiving a full report of
the incident from the aviation ministry.
He stated, “What the ministry would do
is to convey the full report (of the flight violation) to the United
Kingdom government through their embassy. Since the incident happened
today (Sunday), we are not in the office and we have not been briefed.
Maybe, by Monday (today), we will find out about it.”
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