pheesayor: Stranger than fiction. But this news went viral via BlackBerries this morning:

This jst happened to Jahdiel, Nigerian Gospel artiste, few minutes ago..a wk after Dana Crash..wetin dey do naija airlines nah?

Imagine. I boarded an arik plane today for a program in ph, the plane was on for a while and we were all sweating profusely cos the ac was not on. I summoned a staff who attends my church asked him why..he said the second engine wasn’t working and dat the ac doesn’t work unless we take off. On hearing this we all disembarked the plane. Can u imagine they were trying to use a generator to start the engine. If arik planes can be faulty then no plane is safe to fly in nigeria.

Attempts to speak with the singer have not been successful as her phone is off, but her friend and fellow artiste, Nikki Laoye, confirmed the event. Repeatedy calls to the Arik Air spokesperson have not yet been returned.

We will continue to update you.

UPDATE: We have contacted the singer via and she sent us this message:

After my refusal of flying with the flight today with arik air to ph flight no W3 519 with one engine, a new plane was provided for us..we could even smell the “newness” pardon my english..we were all calm and at ease. My fellow nigerians,the word “manage” is not our heritage. We deserve the best we will always get when we speak out with one voice. One people,great nation.

Source: Ynaija

Sir P!:
@vicjustice . V1 isnt take off speed, it's the speed at which a pilot cant safely abort take off. The take off speed is V.Rotate (V.R). Just so you know

Vicjustice:
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!
The whole thing is being exaggerated
I have many valid reasons to frown upon this post.
1) The average age of Arik planes is 3.5 years old, therefore, it is extremely unlikely that an engine of such age would develop a fault except if it encounters an interference of foreign objects during a flight.
2) Though standard airplance are equipped with multiple engines, but only one of them powers the generator, so, perhaps the flight attendant said "the engine that powers the AC is not running at the moment".
3) It is a gross misconduct for a flight attendant to announce an operational fault of a plane to passengers, only the Pilots have the power and responsibility to do so
4) Airplane needs full engine power to reach its take-off speed and attain lift, and then ascend to cruising altitude, so, it is practically difficult to achieve this with half the power of its engines capacity
5) No pilot would agree to fly a plane with one engine: they all know that it would take longer time to reach V1 (and take-off speed), the plane might even over-run the Runway and yet, not get to V1; and if however it happens to make the take-off, it might not have enough lift to stay airborne and climb to cruising altitude: there is a high chance that the plane will stall and fall down from the sky
6) There is no source to verify this claim
Though, there are several other flight operational reasons to frown upon your claim but this should be enough

joebol:



IF THERE WERE REALLY NO ISSUE WITH THE PLANE, WHY DID ARIK MANAGEMENT CHANGED THE PLANE? SECONDLY, WHY THE CONTINUED SILENCE OF ARIK AIR OVER THIS SENSITIVE ISSUE?