Flight Diversion: There Was No Weather Problem, Keyamo Counters United Nigeria Airlines

Eko Hot Blog reports that Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has dismissed the defence of United Nigeria Airlines over its Abuja-bound flight that diverted to Asaba, Delta State.

He spoke on Monday during a meeting with heads of regulatory agencies over safety concerns in the aviation industry.

United Nigeria Airlines had claimed that its pilot “temporarily diverted” the Abuja-bound flight to Asaba on Sunday due to “poor destination weather.”

It further claimed that the cabin crew, which had told passengers that they had arrived in Abuja when they were in fact in Asaba, made the “wrong announcement.”

However, passengers on the flight swiftly rejected the defence, saying they were told by the pilot in the aftermath of the situation that he was given the wrong flight plan; he told them nothing about “poor destination weather.”

Speaking on the issue, the aviation minister echoed the passengers’ stance, suggesting that United Nigeria Airlines lied to its passengers that there was a weather problem to launder its image.

Keyamo revealed that the pilots who flew the United Nigeria Airlines wet lease flight were foreigners who were not familiar with Nigerian terrain.

He disclosed that the aviation ministry had listened to the transcript from the tower to the pilot, as released by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), adding that all pilots on the plane were foreigners.

He noted that from the transcript heard, the tower kept asking the pilot to confirm again that the plane was heading to Abuja, not Asaba — the pilot replied that he was going to Asaba.

The minister added that it was purely an in-house administrative issue.

“It was clear that when the pilot was taking off from Lagos, he was headed to Asaba, not Abuja,” he said.

“Whereas the flight was headed to Abuja. There was no weather problem in Abuja. It was a question of a wet lease where the pilot and the crew were all foreigners, not Nigerians.”

Keyamo added that the ministry has taken precautionary and preliminary steps due to the incident.

He disclosed that the dispatcher and those involved in the incident have been interviewed and sanctions will be meted out as required.

On Monday, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had said it commenced an investigation into the diversion of the United Nigeria flight.

Meanwhile, Keyamo said an agreement has been reached by aviation agencies that all wet lease must have a Nigerian pilot for every flight.

He said the incident has opened the eyes of regulators to new steps they must take.

The minister said he has “spoken with them we have all agreed that wet leases coming into Nigeria, you must have a Nigerian pilot seated at least on the jump seat — must be seated there with the foreign pilot”.

“A Nigerian pilot must be there with them in the wet leases even if it is for a few hours,” he said.

“I have also directed NCAA that within the next 72 hours, they should summon all pilots and crew who are operating wet leases in Nigeria for further briefing because the lives of Nigerians were at stake.”

Keyamo said if regulators within the airlines’ fold fail in their aircraft assessment duty, NCAA should withdraw their licences and blacklist them.

A wet lease is any leasing arrangement whereby a person agrees to provide an entire aircraft and at least one crew member.

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