The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has commenced an investigation into the delay of flight operations by Dana Airline at the Muritala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.
The probe followed the flight delay to Owerri and Port Harcourt for over 24 hours. The passengers in a viral video were seen disconnecting the computers used for flight check-in by the airline when the announcement came by 6:00 pm that the flight was canceled.
The Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection NCAA, Michael Achimugu in a phone interview with The Guardian said the authority has issued a Letter of Investigation (LOI) to the airline for them to explain in detail the reason for the delay.
He said “The NCAA management held a meeting with the airline Tuesday morning and we have issued them a LOI officially for them to categorically explain the reason for the delay. They have been given 7-days to respond to the LoI”.
The director further explained that the LOI was to formalize the meeting held with the airline saying the airline had attributed the flight delay to the technical glitches discovered by their aircraft engineers during the routine check-up before the take-off of the flight.
He said although the airline has fixed the technical fault and since commence normal flight operations but NCAA has reduced their flight operations from 8 to 6 operations per day.
He said “this was because we discovered that one of their aircraft was faulty and it won’t be good if they allow them continue to operate their normal schedule. He said the imposition will be in force till NCAA decide otherwise”.
Achimugu stressed that passengers should know that several factors can be responsible for flight delays, saying it could be Act of God or due to technical glitches. He said whichever way an airline would always want to ensure the safety of the passengers.
He noted that the NCAA Act 2023 Part 19 that speaks on consumer protection stressed in case of flight delays of 30minutes after schedule the airline shall categorically explain reason for the delay, if it extends by two hours, the passengers with snacks and soft drinks and if extends to 10pm when the airport is closed the airline will provide hotel accommodation to the passengers.
