The Federal Government on Sunday directed aviation agencies to carry out an immediate investigation into why Aero Contractors used a ladder to disembark passengers after its chartered flight landed at the Bauchi airport.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, gave the directive after receiving several reports that the airline used a ladder to disembark passengers from a Boeing 737 aircraft at the Bauchi airport on Saturday.The flight, which had 34 passengers onboard, took off from Abuja and the travellers boarded without any problem, but trouble started after it landed in Bauchi.
Aero had explained that the passengers had to use a ladder to disembark because of the unserviceable equipment of the airport management used for disembarking travellers from flights.The airline had said, “A special charter flight, operated by Aero to Bauchi, had problems with unserviceable equipment by the airport management in disembarking about 34 passengers from Abuja. Consequently, against the airline’s wish and operational safety guideline, the passengers used a ladder to disembark.
However, at the time of boarding, the air stairs were functional and the passengers boarded successfully. Aero wishes to state that it took adequate and safety measures for this operation, including the airport’s ground staff, to handle the air stairs equipment in Bauchi. Unfortunately, it became unserviceable at the point of disembarking.But Sirika, in a statement by the aviation ministry, said the act was inconsistent with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations and International Civil Aviation Organisation Standards and Recommended Practices.
The investigation, he said, would determine the immediate and remote causes of the incident with a view to developing and implementing measures that would prevent a recurrence of the “unsafe and unacceptable procedure” that exposed passengers to high risk of serious injury.He stated that if the airline was found culpable, it would be heavily sanctioned.
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