Don’t fly these planes

By Idris Akinbajo, Nicholas Ibekwe and Elor Nkereuwem

June 1, 2009 10:31AMT



   
Passengers that board two Virgin Nigeria Boeing 767-300 aircraft and Arik Air’s Hawker HS-125 planes, which it uses for its executive charter flights, are doing so at great risk, an audit report of Nigerian airline operators has revealed.

The audit report was carried out by Air Consult International, on behalf of British Gas, Addax Petroleum, Centrica, Petroleum Geo-Services and Nexen Nigeria, all operating in the oil industry in Nigeria.

In the October 2008 confidential report, obtained exclusively by NEXT On Sunday, only Aero Contractors got a clean bill of health for all the aircraft on its fleet while planes on the fleet of Arik Air and Virgin Nigeria, apart from those earlier mentioned, were certified okay.

Those who patronise the executive jet charter business also have to be careful as they face a greater risk. The auditors’ verdict on the charter business is scary and emphatic: “The executive charter business has not kept pace with other aviation developments and at this stage the auditors cannot recommend any service in this category.”

Air Consult International was established in 1981. It specialises in the provision of consultancy services, technical assistance and training in the aviation sector. It has been conducting audit in Nigeria’s aviation sector since 2003.

A team of five auditors conducted a ‘user’ audit on six fixed wing operators and five helicopters at three different locations. They also held discussions with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) “to gain further insight into regulatory changes currently affecting the aviation industry in Nigeria.”

Operating environment
For a country bedevilled by a spate of air crashes and near-mishaps particularly between 2002 and 2005, the auditors’ damning verdict that, “there is strong evidence that operational standards, especially in aircraft maintenance, are not keeping pace with growth developments in the industry,” should be serious food for thought for operators, regulatory agencies and passengers.

The report also declared that, “The operating environment in Nigeria is still a difficult one. Vast areas of the country’s airspace do not have radar coverage and air traffic control is provided by radio and procedural means.” It condemned a developing trend where new entrants are allowed to piggy-back on an existing operator’s air operating certificate (AOC) which it claims “is a worrying development as very often the host airline may not be totally compliant with regulatory requirements in their own airline.” This is the arrangement one of the airlines audited, ARM Business Jets, planned to operate, using Associated Airlines certificate.

Losing its virginity

The auditors said they “are disappointed in some of the findings related to the B737 operation” while they “cannot recommend use of the B767 as the aircraft or engineers were not available for audit.” They also highlighted the deterioration in Virgin Nigeria service compared to the time they carried out an earlier audit in 2006.

“During our 2006 audit we found that the new airline operated to high standards with effective procedures in place to sustain these standards. Now less than two years later, we find substantial changes to Virgin Nigeria operation.”

Some of the changes which they said affected Virgin Nigeria operations include reduction of Virgin Atlantic group shareholding from 49 per cent to seven per cent. Virgin Atlantic management support has been reduced to five personnel while Virgin Nigeria is now responsible for low level maintenance on the B737 aircraft as the Lufthansa engineers providing maintenance support for B737 aircraft have been withdrawn.

But Francis Ayigbe, spokesperson for Virgin Nigeria disagreed with the auditors’ views in an e-mail response to our enquiries. “Virgin Atlantic is still a technical partner and they still exercise technical oversight,” Mr. Ayigbe said.

He said that Virgin Atlantic stake is still 49 per cent in Virgin Nigeria while the airline’s “operational, maintenance, safety and airworthiness standards remain robust and of world class.”

An audit of Virgin’s safety system also showed that of a sample of five air safety reports examined by the auditor, “four of these reports had not found their way into the database of the “Sentenel” safety management system. There was no evidence that any investigation or follow-up had taken place in relation to these four reports.”

Mr. Ayigbe again said, “I strongly disagree. Passenger safety is premium to us, if (there is) laxity in safety, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority would have grounded our operations.”

Executive Problems

The HS-125 Executive jets operated by Arik Air got a Category 0 rating in the audit. This means that they did not meet the basic standards of regulatory compliance as at the time of the audit.

“An audit of the maintenance report, planning and records associated with these two aircraft has highlighted serious discrepancies in the application of mandatory maintenance requirements,” the audit report stated.

It concluded, “In light of our findings in the technical support of the HS-125 aircraft, we cannot endorse (the) use of this aircraft.”

“The two HS-125 in our fleet are for charter operations as their certificate of air worthiness are still current and cannot be flying, they are (were) not approved by NCAA,” said Adebanji Ola, Media Officer of Arik Air in response to our enquiries on the audit report.

In fairness to Arik airline, which commenced operations in October 2006, the audit had words of commendation for its services. “Today this airline provides a very good service and operates to a high standard of safety,” it said. “Consequently, the auditors have no hesitation in recommending use of their B737, CRJ, Dash 8 and F50 aircraft.”

Red flag

Though ARM Business Jets are yet to commence operations, plans by the airline to piggy-back on Associated Airlines is a matter of serious concern. The fleet is managed by RAM West Africa Limited and the auditors’ conclusion was that they “cannot make any recommendation on this planned service but (we) note the reported relationship with Associated Airlines who are not recommended due to serious deterioration in their standards.”

“We are aware of Associated Airlines’ challenges, but we entered into agreement with them because as at that time it was only Associated that was favourably disposed to our terms,” said Efosa Evbuomwan, an official of ARM.

Squeaky clean

Aero Contractors got thumbs up from the auditors. The auditor said “Aero runs a solid, reliable operation”. It added that the audit was Air Consult International’s second audit over a two-year period and “it has confirmed the view that Aero is operating at a standard that aspires to best industry practice. It employs a team of well-qualified, competent aviation professionals.”

The regulator speaks
Unsurprisingly, the affected airlines were quick to point out that since the NCAA not withdrawn their licences, they must still be adhering to industry standards. The agency is the primary regulatory body for airlines in Nigeria in the areas of safety, aircraft registration, personnel licencing, commercial air transport and airspace standards.

Though the auditors claimed to have met with the agency’s Director, Harold Demuren, on Friday, October 17, 2008, its spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, could not confirm it when contacted on phone last week. “I’m not aware of this audit when and where it took place and also whether or not it did take place,” he said.

Mr. Adurogboye said further that Mr. Demuren was out of the country and cannot respond to our enquiries even when we offered to send questions to his boss through e-mail.

“We (NCAA) have various types of audits that are carried out on airlines from time to time. Be assured that our oversight capabilities is not in doubt, we have gone through all the recognised audits and came out with success,” he said.

Need for greater vigilance

The auditors concluded their report with the warning that though operational aircraft in Nigeria are much younger, they are not necessarily safer, adding that “safety depends on the professionalism and competence of all staff in the airline in ensuring compliance with regulations.”

They acknowledged that most of the big players are going through mixed phases of either slow decline or frenetic growth which both require extra special regulatory vigilance.

The auditors warned NCAA, of a danger of “complacency setting in on the false assumption that newer aircraft require less vigilance.”


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God knows i'll never step into any Nigerian Aeroplane used for long haul journeys.
They are death traps waiting to happen.

OMO IBO:

God knows i'll never step into any Nigerian Aeroplane used for long haul journeys.
They are death traps waiting to happen.

But sometimes, it is hard not to fly dem planes, how wld someone get from lagos to abuja or lagos to benin?

I know that this may sound funny, but when i worked in Lagos, i absolutely refused to fly any airline that was not Aero. If Aero was full, i opted to go by road. Jokes apart, there were times i was scheduled to attend meetings in Abuja and i went by road. This happened about 3 or 4 times.

I am not such a big fan of flying and then to make matters worse, the thought of entering all those naija planes scares me. I know that some may say that flying is still the safest way to travel and that accidents happen anywhere and everywhere but - I just will not fly those with those airlines

Fhemmmy:

But sometimes, it is hard not to fly dem planes, how wld someone get from lagos to abuja or lagos to benin?

well, i dont live in Nigeria so i don't have to worry about that.
Although, sometime last year i had no choice but to fly to and from  the east with Virgin Nigeria and Chanchangi. needless to say, my heart was in my hands/mouth the whole time. We could clearly hear some noise somewhere at back of the plane and The pilot was so loud we knew wahala dey. To rub salt in injury, we couldnt land cos Yar Adua and other dignitaries were at the airport.

so where did u landed at?

Regular audit like this is definitely good, as it alerts passengers to what to fly, while waking up the airline operators, as they know they will lose customers.
But personally, much as I prefer Arik(domestic), I normally travel by the next available flight, whether Bellview or Chachangi or IRS or any other.

Crash is the last thing that comes to my mind when I'm doing the booking or buying ticket. I think more of where I'm going and what I'm going to do. So I fly any airline. Maybe when I board, I can think of crash.

we landed about 30 minutes after we arrived lagos

So u mean u guys were roaming about in the air and burning fuel for 30 minutes?? Or did u parked the plane somewhere in the air while u wait!.

brein:

So u mean u guys were roaming about in the air and burning fuel for 30 minutes?? Or did u parked the plane somewhere in the air while u wait!.

its been known to happen. . ._{(dont ask me which of the two)}

o boy, pilot and Yar Adua take our lives dey play tente.

LMFAO!!!
tank God say una no crash oo!

Mr. Ayigbe again said, “I strongly disagree. Passenger safety is premium to us, if (there is) laxity in safety, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority would have grounded our operations.”

Ignore for a moment the feeble attempt by the spokesman of VA to defend its operation, and consider what I believe is an important issue he raised: what exactly is the NCAA doing? Why have they(NCAA) not grounded the operations of those airlines that have glaringly fallen below the acceptable standards, as the report showed?

I do admit that it is risky to fly within Nigeria, however, travelling Benin road driving is just as terrible.

pls can you post their license plate numbers and if possible their pictures so that I'll be able to spot them when next I'm flying to Ota

pls can you post their license plate numbers and if possible their pictures so that I'll be able to spot them when next I'm flying to Ota