Aviation: NCAA suspends Discovery Air, warns against safetybreaches

Nigeria’s aviation sector regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA), says its recent audit on domestic airlines
has revealed severe breaches of safety regulations by some
operators necessitating the issuance of warning letters to
some and the suspension of the operating licence of one of
the airlines.
“In pursuit of our oversight responsibilities as stipulated by
law, the NCAA has lately carried out a review of the operations
of some domestic airlines,” said Sam Adurogboye,
spokesperson for the agency.
Past air crashes in Nigeria had been attributed to decisions or
errors on the part of pilots and airline owners to breach safety
processes in the pursuit of profits. And with recent harsh
weather conditions occasioned by the harmattan haze that
has stalled several scheduled flights coupled with other factors
like high cost of fuel, which have eroded the profitability of
airlines, strict enforcement of safety rules by the NCAA has
become inevitable to halt attempts by airlines to risk
passengers’ lives and fly under unfavourable safety conditions.
Adurogboye said the conclusion of the audit this week had led
to “letters of warning or suspension of Air Operator’s
Certificate (AOC) served on defaulters.”
“A case in point is an airline that failed to carry out certain
corrective actions within one week from January 1 – 7, 2015
as raised in an earlier letter to the operator.
“Consequent upon the inability to address the issues raised,
the NCAA in its letter dated January 8, 2015 to the operator
hereby suspends the Air Operator’s Certificate of Discovery
Airways Limited.
“The suspension takes effect from January 8, 2015, which was
the date of the letter conveying the notice. This order would
be in force pending the outcome of a comprehensive review of
the airlines operations to be carried out accordingly,”
Adurogboye added.
According to him, as much as it was not the desire of NCAA
to regulate any airline out of existence, the regulatory agency,
however, views any violation of safety regulations seriously.
Discovery Air commenced flight operations last year. The
NCAA has repeatedly raised fresh fears over the safety of
some airlines still plying domestic routes noting that some of
the airlines were defaulting in meeting staff basic salary
demands, a trend he said could weaken staff morale and
commitment as well as result in safety compromise.
“The moment an airline cannot meet its financial obligations,
it is believed that the staff morale will be down and this can
impact negatively on safety and security of its operations,”
said the NCAA.