Why NCAA lifted suspension on United Nigeria’s leased airplane

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has revalidated the safety of aircraft in the operations of United Nigeria Airline (UNA) and granted its wet-leased airplane approval to return to skies following the embarrassing episode in Asaba last Sunday.

The clean bill of health, sequel to investigation by the apex regulatory body, was granted with recommendations to improve communication between onboard foreign crew (which is standard in wet-leased equipment) and their local counterparts.

It will be recalled that the airline made headlines last Sunday when its Lagos-Abuja flight suddenly arrived at Asaba International Airport, without prior notice. The crew compounded the confusion by announcing arrival at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport while the actual location was Asaba, Delta State.

The NCAA had suspended the operations of leased aircraft in the UNA fleet as a precautionary measure.   The Director Operations, Licensing and Training at the NCAA, Capt. Ibrahim Dambazau, in a statement yesterday, noted the lack of adequate liaison between the lessor’s Operation Control Centre (OCC) and Lessee (i.e. UNA’s) OCC, which also omitted appropriate flight briefing from the point of departure .

Dambazau added that the airline’s cockpit crew and the Cabin Crew did not hold a preflight briefing before embarking on flight, adding that the OCC flight monitoring of United Airlines did not monitor the aircraft in the company’s Operations Specifications Part G (Wet Lease Aircraft).

Worst still, there was non-adherence to the approved filed Air Traffic Control (ATC) flight plan. Going forward, the NCAA recommended that approved flight programmes should be sent to the lessor and the necessary briefings should be conducted with a dispatcher of lessee in attendance .

“Both cockpit and Cabin Crew should hold appropriate briefings before flight. Flight following procedures should be strictly adhered to by both the lessor and the lessee’s OCC and Flight Crew. All copies of filed flight plans should be handed to the cockpit crew via the lessee’s OCC,” Dambazau stated.

UNA management, in reaction to the lifting of suspension, reassured commitment to passengers’ safety and working round the clock to manage the backlog of flight schedules.