BY CAPT. DANIEL OMALE

The amoured cars scandal dominated most of the media this week, but the other issues facing aviation sector in this country are equally overwhelming.

First, early last week, Dana Air was indefinitely grounded for mere safety-oriented professional decisions (two aborted trips).

These safety precautions were termed unacceptable by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Early this week, IRS Airlines, Chanchangi, First Nation and Allied Air were also grounded indefinitely for what the NCAA considered a breach of Air Operating Certificate (AOC) agreement.

According to the regulatory agency, an AOC holder must, at all times, have two serviceable airplanes in its fleet.

This is quite contrary to what the Civil Aviation Act 2006 stipulates, the law simply requires that an applicant for an AOC for schedule operation must, at the time of such an application, have two aircraft in its fleet to be included in the operational specification.

There is no mention in the act that an air operator cannot send one of the airplanes for maintenance, while the other is operational, this ambiguity in the interpretation of an AOC's responsibility has given the NCAA absolute power to ground, at will, any airline the agency deems fit to strangulate.

It is unrealistic in every sense of aviation business to halt an airline's operation because the carrier is left with one serviceable airplane, what economic consideration does the NCAA allocate to the owners of the business if their offence is that an airplane, which is due for maintenance, is promptly sent abroad to get repaired or inspected?

Therefore, if one of the two airplanes is grounded due to maintenance, the other aircraft must be grounded by regulatory default?

This callous, barbaric, undue pressure from the NCAA must be explained to all AOC applicants prior to the issuance of such a licence, because I can bet my soul that those who still want to waste their precious, hard-earned money would think twice before investing in aviation in Nigeria.

How can anyone, in his rational state of mind, render his fellow citizens jobless in this economic crunch?

It's really strange that airlines in this country, with huge financial burden be put out of business for such a flimsy reason. It's sad, very sad, that a few kitchen cabinet members of the NCAA would nurse such uneconomical punishment on investors/employers of labour