Aircraft grounding by NCAA within legal confines - FAAN

Aviation Nigeria

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) has maintained that the grounding of the Bombadier BD 700 Global Express Aircraft belonging to the Bank of Utah Salt Lake City USA by the NCAA, was in line with actions that follow a breach of regulatory protocols.

In an interview with Channels television early this morning the General Manager  Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Dati said:

"The aircraft registration process is that alien flights have to go through what we call Flight Operations Clearance Certificate before it is allowed to come into the country and in that has an inspection process that may lead to a temporary clearance of 6 months."

"The position was that we had an alien body, which had gone around Owerri, Port Harcourt, Akure, and this is not to be so. We did not even have an idea of who was in the aircraft because there was no submission of a flight plan." He added.

Also speaking on the interview, Rivers State Commissioner of Information, Ibim Semenitari said that the aviation regulatory bodies were in possession of documents which provided sufficient information on the Bombadier BD 700 Global Express Aircraft which was grounded in Akure and had failed to give prompt notification to the owners on the aircraft position.

She said: " The owners where not notified, whereas there is a document which shows the aircraft is held in trust, who the trustee is and also the trustor. The trustor is the government of Rivers State. The agency has these records for aviation trusteeship arrangements"

She also said that a it was unlikely that a sub national government would be receiving notification of a breach in process through the media.

Dati called on other aircraft owners to maintain regulatory protocols adding that he did not see the connection between the office of the minister and the regulatory functions of the NCAA who have been stationed to carry out functions within the confines of the law.

The National Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had on Saturday banned the Rivers State-owned bombardier aircraft from flying in Nigeria’s airspace. The Acting Director General of NCAA, Benedict Adeyinka, the Director of Airworthiness and Standards, announced the suspension of the plane from Nigeria’s airspace, saying its clearance certificate had since expired.