Chinedu Eze
Three months after two First Nation Airways collided at the domestic terminal of the Murtala Muhammed domestic airport, Lagos, Arik Air recorded similar incident yesterday when two of its aircraft, Boeing 737-800NG got involved in a wing-tip brush at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the same airport.
According to statement from the airline, one of the aircraft, 5N-MJP was marshalled out of the ramp for a scheduled flight when its wing brushed that of another aircraft, 5N-MJQ parked on the ramp, prompting the grounding of the two aircraft.
In July this year Emirates flight due to leave the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to Dubai clipped its wing with the wing of Hak Air aircraft as it taxied to the runway. It was laden with over 300 passengers.
Similar incident happened two weeks later when two First Nation Airways flight clipped wings at the domestic terminal of the same Lagos airport.
The Marshaller was blamed. The passengers had to disembark and the flight terminated. Some got refund of their money; others deferred their flight, but all were inconvenienced.
Reacting to these incidents recently, the Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, Captain Ado Sanusi told THISDAY that the problem might be attributed to poor training of the marshallers, noting that without adequate training such incidents would continue to happen with huge cost to airlines and threat to lives of passengers.
Sanusi also said that with adequate training a marshaller might not be able to recognise the different aircraft types and would misdirect them, without considering the aircraft length and expanse, remarking that this might be the factor responsible to these incidents.
“A classic aircraft, Boeing 737-300 which is a classic could be misconstrued as Boeing 737-800 or Boeing 737-700. It is through constant training that would enable the marshallers to know the differences,” Sanusi said.
