Power Gens Pack Up At MMA Airport

Power cuts have caused series of near-tragic landings at the Lagos airport, in southwest Nigeria, over the past few days, passengers aboard the lucky planes have said. And the two electricity generators serving the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, have broken down, thus compounding the situation.

On Monday night, as an Emirates Flight EK781 was about to land, a sudden power cut struck, forcing the pilot to divert the plane to Lome, capital of Togo, a neighbouring West .

The Emirates plane, an Airbus A340-500, had arrived from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and had already received clearance for landing from the traffic controllers when the near accident happened at about 7.44 pm, reports said.

The plane, it was learnt, returned to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, several hours later and made a safe landing at about 11p.m.

A few minutes after, passengers said, there was another power outage at Nigeria’s gateway. The incident was almost a repeat of what happened to a Kenyan Airways flight on Saturday night.

The Kenyan Airways had come from Nairobi, Kenya, and had arrived the Lagos airport at about 9p.m. in complete darkness.

“The blackout was total,” said a passenger onboard the plane.

“The experience I had on Saturday was very difficult. The runway light at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos was switched off. The arrival hall was dark and the immigration officials were using torchlight to work. I even wanted to talk with the pilot but it was too dark and I couldn’t see her.”

The passenger, a frequent traveller, pledged anonymity but called on Nigerian authorities to come clean with the truth.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Datti, said that rain storms were to blame.

He also admitted that since the generator house was blown off last year, it had not been fixed and the water penetrated the panels.

As a result, he said, the panels were soaked and could not transmit power to the E-wing of the terminal building.

He said: “The heavy rain storm that occurred in Lagos yesterday, March 4, disrupted power supply to the Murtala Muhammed Airport for about six minutes due to a power surge from the two main PHCN power supply sources to the airport.”

The airport is connected to two main power sources from Ejigbo and Egbin power stations.

Datti said the storm initially knocked off the power supply from Ejigbo which led to a three-minute outage at the airport before FAAN engineers switched over to the alternate power supply source from Egbin.  “That supply line was later affected by the storm, leading to another three minute power outage,” he said.

“Our engineers then switched over to the airport’s standby generators, some panels of which were unfortunately soaked with water, due to the heavy flooding that resulted from the heavy rainfall.

“This resulted in a blackout at the ‘E’ wing of the airport, including the avio bridges. It was for this reason that arriving passengers on an international flight were processed through an alternative route at the terminal and in the process, were exposed momentarily to the rain,” he said.

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Rep Wants Aviation Minister Brought To Book Over Licence

 The deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives and leader of the All Nigeria People’s Party caucus in the House, Hon Suleiman Kawu, has described the denial of commercial flight operating licence to three foreign airlines by the minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah, as “a sectional agenda.”

He vowed that the House of Representatives would intervene to put an end to the agenda.

In a press release signed by the lawmaker and made available to Leadership yesterday, he called on President Goodluck Jonathan to put a stop to the action which he said was disuniting Nigerians.

Kawu, who is one of the principal officers in the House of Representatives said, “My attention has been drawn to publication in Daily Trust of Tuesday August 28, 2012 in which the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, was reported to have denied permission to three foreign airlines to commence commercial flight operations to the nation’s capital Abuja. The story was also confirmed by her spokesman.

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Arik Air passes second IOSA certification

Arik Air has scaled through the second audit of the Operational Safety Audit of the International Air Transport Association (IOSA) just as the airline said its airplanes are fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment that makes the aircraft to land with recourse to instrument landing system at airports.

The airline explained that with GPS, the aircraft in its fleet can land at zero visibility at any airport in the country.

IOSA is the benchmark for global safety management in airlines and all IATA members are registered and must remain registered in order to maintain IATA membership.

Presently, two domestic airlines; Arik Air and Air Nigeria are the only airlines on IOSA register.

Speaking with journalists during a facility tour of the airline headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, the Senior Vice President, Operations, Arik Air, Rob Thomas, at the airline Operational Control Centre (OCC), where all it flights are tracked, disclosed that Arik Air airplanes can land with zero visibility, adding that however, the airline does not take off when there is adverse weather report or when there is zero visibility based on the safety ground.

The minimum approved visibility by Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is 1,200.

He added that the GPS in Arik Air airplanes had been integrated into Auto Pilot System (APS) and Flight Management System (FMS), adding that these differentiate the new generation aircraft from the older ones.

Thomas stated that OCC in Arik Air could be comparable to the one in Emirates, adding that with this equipment, it is easier to track the airline’s aircraft, those delayed, gives the airline current global weather report, indicate when an aircraft is due for maintenance, where it will be maintained among others.

He stated that maintenance checks such as A and B are done at the airline’s maintenance hangar by Lufthansa Techniks but was quick to add that major maintenance such as C and D are done abroad.

He disclosed that the airline passed the second IOSA programme and that it was done three weeks ago.

This is coming just as experts are asking the Federal Government to make it compulsory for domestic airlines to belong to IATA, which would make the airlines go through IOSA following the Dana MD 83 aircraft crash which occurred on June 3, 2012, killing 153 passengers, six crew on board and six persons on the ground.

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Dana admits ill-fated plane had engine failure

Officials of Dana Airline, owners of the ill-fated plane yesterday confirmed that it had engine failure based on the pilot’s distress calls to the control tower at about 2:42 pm. The airline also disclosed that there was likelihood that relations of the dead passengers may start claiming their corpses today. 


The director flight operations, Captain Oscar E. Watson, told journalists during a press briefing in Lagos yesterday that the pilot reported engine failure but it was not certain whether it was a double engine failure until the flight recordings in the Black Box were accessed. 


“There is no confirmation that we had twin engine failure but the pilot reported engine failure. It’s not certain that both engine failed. It is just speculation. But based on the standard of training pilots, the pilot can say I have engine one or engine two failure. Probably the pilot said engine two had failed, or call May Day.


 Thus, until we listen to the recordings, we cannot say exactly. We should be careful with wrong information spewing across the country,” he said.

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Aircraft age inconsequential – Aviation Experts

Contrary to the belief that most Nigerian airlines fly old aircraft in the nation’s airspace, age of a plane is not to a barrier to its airworthiness, according to experts.Experts are of the opinion that older aircrafts are flying well even in the developed countries by some of the giant airlines in the world.

The likes of Delta, United, Lufthansa and other leading airline operators are flying 20-40 years old airplanes but with good maintenance schedule for those planes as well as the crew, they said.

Basically, what is important in aviation business globally is the non compromise of safety through the observation of continuous maintenance and certification of air planes and qualifications of the operating personnel both the pilots, flight officer, engineers and the cabin crew.

Captain Mohammed Joji, the Secretary General Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), said there was no correlation between safety and the age of an aircraft, saying a decision to retire an aircraft was basically economic.

He said “an ageing aircraft require more frequent maintenance than new aircraft and that a well maintained old aircraft is better than a poorly maintained new aircraft.”

Similarly, the Chief Executive of Zenith Travel, Olumide Ohunayo, said age of an aircraft was not as important as its maintenance and certification and the cabin crew.

People, according to him, were just making comments out of context with high emotion because of the unfortunate crash.

He said the ill-fated aircraft entered the country’s airspace at the age of 18 in August 2008, adding that the plane in question didn’t crash because of its age contrary to speculations.

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Fuel runs out at Manchester Airport

Passengers were left stranded at England's Manchester Airport, on Wednesday, after the airport ran out of aviation fuel.

Supplies were stopped in the early hours of Wednesday due to quality issues with fuel from the Essar refinery at Stanlow, near Ellesmere Port. Stocks were finally exhausted at around 6pm leaving up to ten flights facing cancellation, the airport said.

The airport said that this is the first time that it has ever run out - although it came close to doing so in 2008. It uses around three million litres of aviation fuel per day.

Fears were voiced that it could prompt a string of flight cancellations and delays if stocks were not replenished until early on Thursday morning. Thirteen flights were delayed because of the glitch, with 12 waiting for less than 30 minutes, while 17 departure flights also made a short stop at other UK airports to top up fuel before completing the onward journey.

The supply from the Essar refinery near Ellesmere Port was interrupted though for just 15 minutes after running out at 5.15pm. A total of three million litres of fuel was supplied overnight to the airport's fuel storage facility and meant operations returned to normal at 8.30am today, the airport said.

The airport uses around three million litres of aviation fuel per day. This is the equivalent of 79 road tankers, which carry approximately 38,000 litres per vehicle Chris Formby, operations director at Manchester Airport, said: "Although we initially warned about the potential for some cancellations and diversions based on the information from the fuel companies yesterday afternoon, disruption to passengers has been kept to an absolute minimum thanks to the airlines and the Essar refinery. "On behalf of the thousands of passengers travelling today and last night, we would like to thank our airline partners for the huge effort they put into contingency planning to mitigate the highly unusual problem with the fuel supply."

Fuel supplies at Manchester Airport have returned to normal, airport bosses confirmed on Thursday.

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Air Nigeria debunks ex-director's claims; calls him a thief

Air Nigeria has released a statement to debunk what they term 'negative and false information' being circulated by the dismissed finance director of the airline, John Nnorom (pictured above). The statement made available to journalists below...

The management of Air Nigeria wishes to draw the attention of the general public to the false and negative stories being spread by one of its ex- Finance Directors, John Nnorom, who is currently facing criminal charges of stealing and conversion. Mr. Nnorom is an illiterate in the maintenance of aircraft as he only worked in the finance department of the airline before he was dismissed. Mr. Nnorom after his dismissal was declared wanted by the police until his subsequent arrest and the recovery of the sum of $100, 000 from him.

The Nigeria Police authority has since charged him for stealing and criminal conversion while the court has admitted him to bail as his criminal trial continues.

The general public is advised to disregard any such negative stories and false information by Nnorom (either in the print, electronic or online media).

Air Nigeria has been flying the air space in the last 10 years with first class record of safety, without any accidents or even emergency landings.

This record remains the integrity of our existence which cannot be compromised. The airline is also a proud member of the IATA and the oldest member in West Africa and one of the oldest in Africa.

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Air Nigeria Is A Flying Coffin, Former Executive Director Says

John I. Nnorom, a former Executive Director for Finance at Air Nigeria, has warned Nigerians to stop flying the airline until they are sure that its planes are being properly maintained. 

In a blistering public petition, Mr. Nnorom, who resigned his appointment with the airline on April 1, 2012, blamed the situation on big businessman Jimoh Ibrahim, the chairman of Air Nigeria, whom he accused of being uninterested in the maintenance of company aircraft. 

“Some of the certifying Engineers and I are under threat of assassination by Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, if we reveal this secret to Nigerians,” he said.

Mr. Nnorom said that upon his resignation, he wrote a letter in which he said he preferred to die than to be a witness to over 100 souls perishing in an Air Nigeria aircraft.

He disclosed that Air Nigeria is in financial crisis because money loaned by Bank of Industry of N35.5Billion has been diverted into Mr. Ibrahim’s NICON INVESTMENT LTD, a non-finance company popularly called wonder bank, leading to air safety being compromised, and stressed that there is a great possibility of a disastrous Air Nigeria crash, which can occur at any time.

He recalled that in Jan 2012, Licensed Engineers in Air Nigeria went on strike because they were being forced to certify unfit aircraft into the air, and another strike was averted in March 2012 following the intervention of the DG-NCAA, Demureen.  Both events, he said, were based on failure on Failure To Meet Safety Standard, and are verifiable information the public is aware of.

Why are Air Nigeria flights sometimes delayed for as many as eight hours?  According to the petitioner, that is because the aircraft for that flight is not ready.  “While passengers are waiting, engineers are battling to put the aircraft on Air.  Several times our Aircraft on Runway taxing to takeoff, turns back to offload passengers due to some technical faults observed by Pilots.” 

He said that of the 11 aircraft being operated by Air Nigeria, only one, Embraer, is safe to fly Nigeria Air space, with all of the others needing “deep and heavy” technical maintenance.

“This explains why Air Nigeria has never operated more than six Aircraft out of eleven Aircraft. Air Nigeria do not have the money to fix these Aircrafts. Let anybody go and check now, some of the Aircraft and Engines have been grounded for the past one year.”

Mr. Nnorom even advised Nigerians who choose to take the risk of flying Air Nigeria not to eat or drink anything, pointing out that passengers have been poisoned because Air Nigeria serves bottled pure water, and that passengers have complained of being served “smelling waters.”

Mr. Nnorom further claimed in the petition that Mr. Ibrahim’s companies, including Air Nigeria, do not have tax clearance certificates.  He listed the others as Global Fleet Oil & Gas, NICON Insurance, Nigeria RE-Insurance, NICON Properties Ltd, Nicon Luxury, Nicon Hotels Okitipupa, VGC & PHC, Newswatch Communications, Newswatch Daily and National Mirror.

“In Air Nigeria, just to renew expatriate resident permit, Bar Jimoh Ibrahim will instruct a vendor to forge all the tax clearance papers which is filed with the immigration.”

Mr. Nnorom alleges that Mr. Ibrahim:

  •    As the chairman of Air Nigeria, has diverted N5billion From a BOI aviation industry intervention loan Of N35.5billion granted last year by the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria into NICON INVESTMENT LTD;

 •    Diverted $18m Out Of $40m Afrixim federal government support of the aviation industry; with $26,969,505.63 diverted into Mr. Ibrahim’s acquisition of Energy Bank of Ghana;

 •    Diverted N10 billion released by the government through the office of the Accountant-General of Nigeria for the payment of pensioners into Nicon Insurance Plc released the sum of, with no pensioner being paid. 

Mr. Nnorom insisted that Mr. Ibrahim is trying to kill him, and attached his letter of resignation and subsequent acknowledgement by the CEO and FOREIGN LEASSORS to the petition. 

“On the SFU, recovery of $75,000 from me, I was never arrested, never invited by SFU, did not make any statement, I do not know how money was recovered from me,” he said.  “I am ready to sponsor any person to come with me to SFU and show me my statement,” attributing the matter to Mr. Ibrahim’s “poor character of cheap blackmail.”

According to the former Executive Director, “Jimoh Ibrahim is after my life but if my death will save hundred Nigerian souls from plane crash and that is the will of GOD, my soul will be happy to meet my creator anytime.”

Culled from Saharareporters

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