Airport officials fool minister - AS missing plane is yet to be found

By Gboyega Adeoye and Sola Adekola - 18.03.2008

SEVENTY-TWO hours after the Saturday morning disappearance of the Beechcraft 1900D plane, there was still confusion in the aviation industry on Monday over its whereabouts as aviation authorities declared that the aircraft was yet to be found.

This revelation came after the Minister of State for Air Transportation, Felix Hyat, and the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Harold Demuren, announced on Sunday that the wreckage of the aircraft was sighted at Dabu village in Yala Local Government of Cross River State.

The aircraft, belonging to Wings Aviation, lost contact with the Port Harcourt airport in the early hours of Saturday.

As early as 8.00 a.m. yesterday, a top official of NCAA who spoke on condition of anonymity said the minister was furious when he found out that he was given wrong information.

“The minister was piqued; he ordered that all officials of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and NCAA that were involved in the search and rescue should head to Abuja to defend the earlier information that was sent out.”

At the time of filing this report, information about whether the aircraft had now been found could not be ascertained.

Most officials in the aviation industry were sceptical about locating the aircraft as they described the Obudu area as not having good visibility.

Hyat, in an interview on Sunday, had claimed that the topography of the environment was responsible for the inability to locate the aircraft.

Meanwhile, stakeholders have expressed worry over the situation as they wondered how long it would take before such a small aircraft would be found.

Some even questioned whether the search and rescue team led by the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had the necessary equipment to conduct the search.

An aviation expert, Dele Ore, described the development as saddening as, according to him, it was a replay of what happened during the Bellview crash of 2005.

Ore said that the search and rescue “is only on paper, we don’t have a reliable system. It is a reminder that things are not working. Our search and rescue system does not exist.

“The initial story was that the wreckage of the airplane had been found and that the three crew were found dead, but to our surprise, the same people who claimed they found the aircraft’s wreckage and the corpses of the crew are turning around to say they are yet to find it. This puts a lot of credibility mark on the sector.”

Sam Akerele, secretary general of Aviation Round Table, said there was the need to include search and rescue operations in the 2008 budget.

“We hope that our search and rescue organisation, structure, funding facilities and manpower will receive necessary attention in the 2008 budget to enable us to conduct more strategic national search and rescue exercises at all international airports,” he said.

The twin turboprop aircraft with registration number 5N JAH departed Lagos airport at 7.35 a.m. on Saturday for the Bebi Airstrip, Obudu, for a charter service.

It had three people on board and was expected to arrive at Bebi at 8.45 a.m., but when nothing was heard from the crew at about 10.00 a.m., NEMA was contacted.

Nigerian Tribune, however, gathered that a top officer from one of the agencies misled the minister into believing that the plane had actually been found.

The issue, which was the first of its kind in the country, has caused panic among senior management officers who have been accused of embarrassing the nation.

Those who misled the minister and those who failed to carry out their responsibilities may be dealt with.