The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Tuesday said it had released one of the two foreign aircraft grounded for falsifying flight clearance and carrying out illegal operations in Nigeria.
The NCAA said the operator of the aircraft paid N7 million to it while it paid $20,000 to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Sam Adurogboye, NCAA spokesman, said at Lagos airport that the aircraft that was released was the Bombardier 700-100 with registration number G-RBEN Global express S/N 9083 operated by Gama Aviation, United (UK) Limited, saying the Embraer 135 J with registration number XA-MHA was still being grounded. Both aircraft were grounded on Sunday by the Authority.
Adurogboye had said that the operators of G-RBEN aircraft were found operating in Nigeria’s airspace with falsified flight clearance information and conducting illegal domestic flight operations in Nigeria.
Other infractions, according to him, are: conducting illegal commercial revenue flight operations contrary to conditions contained in Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) Part 10 and security violations.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the Embraer 135B J registration marks XA-MHA was reported to have landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, from London, Farnborough without any flight clearance on the September 10, 2015, he said.
Reports from the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) indicated that the crew informed them that they possess a ministerial approval for the flight.
However, on landing, the crew could not produce any ministerial approval as claimed.
He said the BD 700-100 was a United Kingdom Air Operators Certificate (AOC) holder and had been carrying out several domestic operations between Abuja and Lagos without the Authority’s Permit/Certification in accordance with Nigerian CARs Part 10.
While further investigation continues the other aircraft remains grounded, he said. The aircraft country of registry in UK and Mexican Civil Aviation Authority [MCAA] will be notified as appropriate.
“The Legal and Enforcement department of the NCAA will after the conclusion of the investigation proffer appropriate sanctions and enforcement procedure according to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs),” he said.
