A fortnight ago Emirates flight due to leave
the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to Dubai clipped its wing with
the wing of Hak Air aircraft as it taxied to the runway.
It was laden with over
300 passengers.
As a result of incident, the flight was aborted
and the airline made frantic efforts to move the passengers to hotels. The bags
checked into the cargo haul of the aircraft had to be moved and the whole
process of flight to Dubai had to be terminated.
The passengers that had to connect their flights
to other destinations had to defer their schedule, those going to buy goods and
had made arrangement for delivery had to alert their business partners to make
adjustments. Indeed, many of the passengers would lose money; lose contacts and
undergo series of discomfort, including those who had perishable goods .
This incident happened because the marshaller
that directed the aircraft might have misinformed the pilot; it might also be
because of the poor illumination of the airport or that the Hak Air aircraft was
not properly parked. It might also be because the Emirates pilot did not follow
the directive of the marshaller. For that flight cancellation both the
passengers and the airline would lose money and operational time.
Similar incident happened last Friday when two
First Nation Airways flight clipped wings at the domestic terminal of the same
Lagos airport. The Marshaller was blamed. The passengers had to disembark and
the flight terminated. Some got refund of their money; others deferred their
flight, but all were inconvenienced. The airline lost money carrying out
repairs.
Few years ago Arik aircraft faced similar
incident at the Jos airport, the flight was aborted and the passengers had to
wait for another flight to airlift them. They waited for few hours but that was
because the airline had more aircraft in its fleet; otherwise the flight would
have been cancelled.
There have been similar incidents where vehicles
of food suppliers, baggage handlers and even fuel bowsers damaged aircraft fully
boarded with passengers and ready to take off. The flight had to be aborted and
the airline would spend several millions of Naira carrying out repairs.
It was the record of such many incidents that
gave rise few years ago to mandatory training and re-training of operators who
drive at the ramp and other ground staff at the airports. But the training seems
to have been discontinued, although the handling companies may be carrying out
the training of their staff as ground handling is one of their major jobs.
Angered by the incident at MMA2, the management
of First Nation Airways called the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
to subject the officials who direct aircraft and other ground staff, including
vehicles drivers who operate at the ramp for more training.
In a statement the airline said the incident was
avoidable if FAAN marshallers “had been diligent to avoid marshalling the
aircraft wrongly.”
“We urge the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN) to retrain the marshallers as we understand that the marshallers at MMA2
are deployed by FAAN under an MOU with Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited,
the operator of MMA2, Ikeja. It is important to emphasise that at no time was
the safety of passengers at risk.
“The regulatory authorities will also need to
enhance oversight of the marshallers and their authorisation to arrest the
growing incidents of aircraft damage on ground in Nigeria which is embarrassing.
Besides the huge losses that Firstnation and other airlines suffer as a result
of avoidable ground incidents. You will recall that a similar incident involving
Emirate aircraft occurred only a couple of days ago,” the airline said.
The Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, Captain
Ado Sanusi said the root cause of the problem may be attributed to bad marking
of the apron, adding that the marking could mislead the marshallers to make
mistakes.
“I don’t blame the marshallers; I blame the
system. What you should ask is who drew the aerolines?”
Sanusi also pointed out that the marshaller could
make mistakes by the confusion brought about by the adding of winglets to old
aircraft, known as classics, as if they are Next Generation (NG) aircraft. He
noted that while classics have different wing-span a winglet disorientates its
expanse and a marshaller may misunderstand it as NG which has different engine
size and different wing-span.
He also said that where they put ground equipment
should be clearly marked at the apron and this should be in the right place.
Frowning on the frequent incidents at the apron,
the former Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the
President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd) said:
“Less than two weeks after the collision between emirates and Hak Air, another
collision between First Nation has just been reported. Who is in charge of
safety at the apron control in the terminals of the airport? What is the
approval capacity (in terms of aircraft that could be parked) in each apron? Who
is responsible or the appropriate authority for aircraft marshalling on these
aprons?”
Many people blamed FAAN for lack of adequate
training of the marshallers and others that work at the apron.
On the fate of passengers when aircraft is
damaged and flights have to be aborted, the Manager, Communication and Corporate
Services of Nigerian Aviation Handling Plc (nahco aviance), Tayo Ajakaiye said
the handling company has no commitment with the passengers but the airlines
does, so the airline takes care of the passengers.
He also said if the damage of the aircraft was
caused by ground handling operations the airline would discuss with the company
on how to foot cost of repairs.
But if such incidents are avoided the passengers
would not face the trauma of flight cancelation after they have meet all the
condition to travel.
