By Louis Ibah
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has slammed a fine of N33.5million on First Nation Airways and one of its pilots for the violation of safety regulations in Nigeria’s aviation industry.
First Nation Airways has however appealed the NCAA’s fine. The airline in a statement said it was “surprised that the NCAA press release did not contain the fact that the airline had immediately filed an appeal against the sanctions in accordance with the requirements of Nig. CARs 1.10”.
Spokesman for the NCAA, Mr Sam Adurogboye, in a statement on Sunday said the sanction was conveyed in a Letter to the airline following the discovery that one of its pilots flew a passenger aircraft with an expired medical certification which amounted to a breach of the Nigerian civil aviation law.
According to the Letter, “during a Ramp Inspection on First Nation Airbus A319 Aircraft with registration mark 5N-FNE at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA),it was discovered that the Pilot in Command (PIC) was not in personal possession of a current medical certificate neither was it readily accessible.Consequent upon this, a Letter Of Investigation [LOI] was sent to the Airline and the Pilot.”
The NCAA said the pilot in response to its query had admitted violating Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) while the airline demonstrated lack of thorough knowledge of the requirements of the regulations.
NCAA stated that with that, the airline has therefore contravened the regulations by allowing a flight crew member to be rostered to operate a total of 16 scheduled flights on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th November, 2016,adding that these operations were carried out while the pilots medical certificate had expired since November 1, 2016, which had rendered the Pilot’s License invalid from that date.
First Nation however said the NCAA was acting in bad faith. First National lamented the fact that NCAA elected to go public on a Sunday, while also alleging that the NCAA had deliberately withheld the fact that the airline had appealed the sanctions in accordance with the relevant regulation. Said First Nation, “It is our position that on the day that the said flight was ramp inspected, the Captain had a valid medical license. We have also drawn NCAA’s attention to the need to address the bureaucracy associated with the general license and medical renewals process with the Authority.”.
“We will cooperate with NCAA in working to improve the current challenges with respect to License renewal. The Airline admit no wrong doing and despite this position consider the level of financial fine arbitrary and at variance with the levels set out in the relevant section of Nig.CARs The essence of Nig. CARs is corrective rather than cause Airline injury and we will be working the appeal and review of the sanction with NCAA,” the airline added.