Averting Apron Incidents

 

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.

Source: www.thisdaylive.com