I am a frequent flyer which means I am constantly travelling. In addition to which I am a world traveller. I am a mix of domestic and international travels. The Egypt Air tragedy caught many travellers completely off guard. As air disasters go, every single one is monumental, gut wrenching, heart breaking, and terribly sad. It’s not like road accidents where your feet are firmly on the ground-where help can come from neighbours, communities, and families. Air travel is said to still be the safest mode of travel anywhere in the world. It is also convenient because a 9hour road journey is compressed into 15minutes. While it is expensive, domestically, it helps you escape kidnapping, armed robbery, drunk driving and all other such related ills that has come to be associated with the Nigerian society today.
There has been carpet to carpet coverage of the Egypt Air tragedy and like tragedies. It has become a meal ticket for the media. There are misinformation, disinformation and contradictory reports about what actually caused the tragedy. The visuals across television networks of children’s shoes, passenger luggage and life jackets, which seem ordinary when you fly has suddenly taken on a sharper yellow in the visuals beamed across the world. A sick yellow-that shade of yellow you do not want to have anything to do with.
Grief is in the air in Cairo and other parts of Egypt. Families are in tears at Airports and homes. Comments are been presented to us by family members about their departed loved ones. Names take on a new meaning as pictures of the departed flash before our eyes on televisions and elsewhere.
Many families across the world re-live the experience of past tragedies where they lost friends and loved ones. It’s a journey. A sad journey we do not wish on our worst enemies.
Issues on security are been discussed across board in France where the plane took off; in Egypt where the plane was to have landed and home of the airline. People are been screened to include those who cleaned the plane; maintenance officers, the crew, engineers and ground staff.
This brings us to the huge lessons derived from the surrounds of this plane crash as it relates to Nigeria. I shall ask a few rhetorical questions and thereafter hold my peace.
How do you describe the battery of Nigerians, unofficial and official who spend their time soliciting at Airports?
Who are those persons who within the security enclave of our airports try to give you a hand with your carry-on luggage to the foot of the plane?
Who are these random people who try to:
help you jump a queue
offer you ticket sales on arrival
seem like your new personal assistant
ask you what flight you are taking and at what time (this is expected to be an information society where our tickets are in languages we are expected to be able to read)
4) Why are ground officers of some airlines (in the middle of a challenge including poor internet connectivity), direct you to non-staff, touts and general contractors to help you solve your ticketing problems (a ticket you bought from them)?
5) Why are un-uniformed, untagged, non-identifiable human beings running around the tarmac of Nigeria airports?
6) Why do I have to deal with a cabin crew member (as it happened on my last flight) who seems dodgy, is loud and is discussing maintenance and security matters at the top of her voice while we are waiting to take-off (this was post the Egypt Air tragedy)?
7) Why do we still have ticket racketeering?
8) Is there any reason the man or woman responsible for bag checks with the x-ray baggage scanner is having a chat with someone else instead of concentrating on proper check on the bag?
9) Is there any reason some persons should be excused from having security checks because of how big they are in the society? Security risks are not written on foreheads hence the need to check.
10) How do protocol official tags get into the hands of non-airport officials for some passengers clearance?
All these rhetorical questions lead to further questions than answers and they bother me. Our insane carelessness bothers me. Our casual attitude bothers me. If France with all its security gadgets and high technology can face this, then we must be more alert. Those with responsibility to secure us should step up their game. This should no longer be business as usual.
My heart goes out to all families across the world whose loved ones went down with the ill fated Egypt Air plane. May their souls rest in peace Amen!
Eugenia Abu
