₦airaland Forum

onimcee1: Attempt to kill him like how? Mention the various attempts nd i will prove you wrong. That oshiomole guy is an hypocrite, so stop being gullible by his cunning acts.

Danhumprey: Yea. Because majority of them behave like religious fanatics,so any strange happenings the notice,could easily shake them. They tend to read meaning into trivial issues.

homesteady: Don't you think that you are the best candidate?

caseless: yes! Buhari.

Ogbeche77: like you guessed, he's been declared dead again

Blu Malam: This report is very questionable. Med View airlines solely airlifts muslim pilgrims, amongst which pregnant/nursing mothers are not found as they are forbidden to go on pilgrimage. Therefore the 'nursing mother' angle invalidates the story completely. Correct me if i'm wrong.

hammedkola: This reminds me of when i was in Maiduguri, Borno state (Home of "Who you know am talking about" , We used to be scare of bomb explosion and gunshots, soon they became "Normal ringtone to me"

Well, back to the topic, I pray God continue to guide our movement.....Wait oh!, am flying to that maiduguri from this same Airport tomorrow, hmmmmm God, na your hand our journey dey oh!

By JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE


ABUJA — Against the backdrop of recent air disasters in the country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, yesterday, raised an alarm before the Senate that there are no laws empowering it to stop aged aircraft flying our airspace.

The agency said unless the National Assembly amends the existing law; it would continue to register old aircraft, saying no law stops it from granting operating licenses to aircraft that are above 50 years.

At a public hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Aviation, where all heads of agencies under the Ministry of Aviation appeared to answer questions from the committee on problems in the sector, Director of Aerodrome Services, Mr. Joyce Nkemakolam, who incidentally acted as Director-General after the sack of former Director General, Mr Harold Demuren, also disclosed that of all the nation’s airports, not one had been fully certified..

Nkemakolam, who was asked by Senator Hope Uzodinma, Chairman of Senate Committee on Aviation to name the airports in the country that were fully certified, simply responded: “Distinguished chairman, no airport in Nigeria has been fully certified.”
[img]http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/investigation-ll-thorough-black-box-secured-aviation-minister/plane1/jpg[/img]
File: The ill-fated Associated Airline plane before it crashed.

Senator Uzodima, while speaking at the occasion, said his committee discovered that the NCAA issued several operational licences to non existing aircraft in the country just as he said it found that the aircraft manufactured over 43 years ago were flying the country’s airspace with registration of other old ones still being carried out by the NCAA.

He tasked the agency to emulate the Nigeria Customs Service which took bold step in banning over-aged vehicles from being imported into the country, saying that incidents of air crash being witnessed in the country was partly due to the problem.

But responding, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said that at the moment, there was no law in place to put an end to the usage of old aircraft in the country and appealed to the National Assembly, through the appropriate committees to come up with legislation to that effect.

Senator Hope Uzodinma, lamented the reckless abandon with which the NCAA issued licences and Air Operations Certificates. AOCs, without recourse to, and observance for prescribed and laid down regulations.

He accused the agency of issuing twice the number of certificates since the exit of the former Director-General of NCAA, Dr. Harold Demurem.

Uzodinma said: “The issue of AOC is a serious matter, since after Demuren, the NCAA has issued twice the number of certificates.

“When it comes to the issue of safety, standards and regulations, we cannot compromise.”

According to the Aviation Committee Chairman, one of the operators among six others whose identity he did not disclose, was given license to operate by NCAA under Joyce Nkemakolam, former Acting DG, NCAA, despite the fact that the operator did not own any aircraft.

These operators, Senator Uzodinma noted, were yet to commence operations due to inadequacies of not having any aircraft till date six months after issuance of said licences.

A member of the committee, Senator Ali Ndume, condemned the action of NCAA over its decision to certify a 43 -year old aircraft, Westlink Airlines, as “air-worthy.”

“In this time and age where aircraft are with high technology, you are approving AOC for an aircraft which is 43 years old. It is an insult to fly Nigerians in an aircraft that is 43 years old. It doesn’t make sense. You have a right to say that anybody who has an aircraft older than 12 years should not come to your office. After all the customs did theirs,” Ndume fumed.

Earlier, Senator Uzodinma queried the Director-General of NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, over the agency’s failure to take action on one of the agency’s Principal Operations Inspectors identified as Mr. Agwu.

The said inspector allegedly engaged in fraudulent and sharp practices while being responsible for inspecting Beachcraft, Dana and Associated airlines, both of which subsequently became involved in air crashes.

Responding, Capt. Akinkuotu said the agency was presently conducting an investigation into the matter, adding that “we have interrogated him, and there is an on-going in-house investigation.”

On the alleged procurement of bullet proof cars for the Minister of Aviation, the NCAA Director-General told the committee that the agency did not come before the Senate with information needed since it did not come prepared to respond to the issue of the armoured cars.

https://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PLANE-Crash-in-lagos-4.jpgAnother air disaster was averted at the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja on Monday as a Med-View Airlines aircraft from Lagos suddenly took to the air again at the point of landing in Abuja.

The pilot told the passengers that he took to the air again to avoid a collision with another aircraft on the tarmac.

The airline Flight VL2104 took off from the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos at noon and was scheduled to land in Abuja at about 1.05pm.

The pilot had already announced final descent into Abuja and asked all passengers and cabin crew to fasten their seat belts but the pilot suddenly took off to the air again with barely 30 seconds to touch ground.

The plane had 150 passengers on board. A correspondent of The PUNCH was one of the passengers.
After about three minutes of gaining altitude, the pilot announced that he decided to take off again to avoid colliding with an aircraft that was on ground.

He said that after he had been granted clearance to land, it was later discovered that the other aircraft was not fast enough, hence his decision to take off.

The aircraft hovered for another 20 minutes in the air before finally landing at about 1.30pm.

While the drama lasted, the passengers were panic-stricken, especially when the plane entered into turbulent weather on air.

The PUNCH correspondent said that among the passengers were five different complete families.

One of the passengers, a nursing mother, who was breastfeeding her son at the time the pilot took off again reportedly withdrew the breast from the boy’s mouth and started praying profusely while the baby’s cry rented the air.

When the plane finally landed, the passengers struggled to disembark.

“Are you still sitting down? Let me rush down in case it will suddenly take off again,” a middle-aged man was heard teasing one of his co-passengers.

The incident came less than a month after an Embraer aircraft operated by Associated Airlines with registration number SCD 361, conveying the corpse of a former Governor of Ondo State, Chief Olusegun Agagu, from Lagos to Akure for burial, crashed on October 3 shortly after take-off at Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.

Thirteen passengers in the crashed plane were killed, including a commissioner in Ondo State, Deji Falae.

Only eight per cent said no because they do not have radio and television sets.

kolidave: lmao guy u funny oooo. U must really hate dis dude. Na jazz the hackers wan use?

THE 23 deputy governorship candidates will today square up in a televised debate on what they, in conjunction with their governorship flag-bearers, will do for Anambra State, if elected. The debate will hold at the Women Development Centre, Awka.

The governorship candidates will take their turn on Thursday and the final gubernatorial debate will take place on November 1, according to Aremo Taiwo Alimi, chairman, Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG).

Noting that the debates will enable the Anambra electorate to assess the candidates and make informed choices at the polls, Alimi said the result of an opinion the NEDG conducted early this month on whether or not Anambra citizens want to listen to live TV and radio gubernatorial debates is out.

According to him, 3000 citizens in each local council of the state were polled and an average of 92 per cent registered voters expressed their readiness to watch or listen to the debates.

Only eight per cent said no because they do not have radio and television sets.

kolidave: don't be 'silly' he'll just open up another account wiv a different email ID.