The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has summoned heads of aviation regulatory agencies over the recent recurring safety issues in the aviation industry.
This disclosure is contained in a post made by Keyamo on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday, November 27, 2023, where he noted that a thorough assessment of recent incidents will be carried out during the meeting.
The agencies involved include the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airport Authority Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The minister will meet with them;
- “to discuss the recent accidents in the sector and will thereafter brief the press on the outcome of the deliberation to avert such occurrences”.
What the Aviation Minister is saying
The post from Keyamo reads,
- “Due to safety concerns in the aviation sector expressed by members of the public, I have summoned the heads of the regulatory agencies to my office later today to review the incidents that are the causes of these concerns and to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to forestall future occurrence and to apply sanctions, where necessary, regarding the past incidents.’’
What you should know
This is coming barely a day after the recent incident involving United Nigeria Airlines, whose Lagos-Abuja bound flight was diverted to Asaba, Delta State, due to poor weather conditions
Recently, the Lagos-Abuja flight of United Nigeria Airlines was diverted to Asaba, Delta State capital, due to poor weather conditions.
The flight, NUA 0504, took off on Sunday (yesterday) from the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Terminal 2, and was headed for Abuja.
However, the pilot grounded the aircraft at the Asaba International Airport, and that caused some confusion among the passengers.
Meanwhile, a few hours ago, Nairametrics reported that the NCAA had suspended all the wet-leased aircraft under the United Nigeria Airline due to the incident.
A source close to NCAA confided in Nairametrics on Monday that the apex civil aviation regulatory body decided on Monday via a letter communicated to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the airline.