As.controversy rages over the suspension of operations of Dana Air at the instance of the minister of aviation, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, the former Deputy Secretary General, Airline Operators of Nigeria, (AON) has warned against the danger of undermining the autonomy of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA).
In a statement, Alhaji Tukur described the grounding of all the fleet of the Dana Air by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barrister Festus Keyamo as an usurpation of the powers of the NCAA.
“The action of the Minister is like putting our civil aviation on a reverse to the era between the late eighties and the early time of the present democratic dispensation when President Obasanjo for no just course ordered the grounding of the entire Chanchangi fleet over Bellview crash.”
He noted that the development was a dangerous signal that must be repealed so that the civil aviation authority would not be relegated to an appendage of the Ministry.
The former AON scribe further described the grounding of DANA, an airline that just scaled through the economic audit of the NCAA as unfortunate stressing that it was also happening at the wake of the authority’s successful safety audit and FAA’s category one.
His words:“It’s ironic for Keyamo who recently complained of high insurance rates and leasing costs faced by the Nigerian operators to come up with such hammer on DANA which gives an impression that our CAA lacks independence and oversight capability”.
Tukur further observed that there was likely an issue of aqua plain on the runway because of the rain, saying that it was necessary to have waited for the investigators to come up with the plenary report while only the aircraft involved should have been grounded.
