27th November, 2023
By Victoria Oluwayemi
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has called upon the heads of aviation regulatory bodies to address safety issues within the sector.
Taking to his X account(formerly Twitter), Keyamo stated, that a comprehensive evaluation of recent incidents will take place in the meeting.
“In response to public apprehension regarding aviation safety, I’ve requested the presence of regulatory agency leaders at my office today. The aim is to analyze the incidents that have sparked these concerns, implement preventive measures for the future, and where needed, enforce sanctions for past occurrences,” Keyamo tweeted.
Due to safety concerns in the aviation sector expressed by members of the public, I have summoned the heads of the regulatory agencies to my office later today to review the incidents that are the cause of these concerns and to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to forestall…
— Festus Keyamo, SAN, CON, FCIArb (UK) (@fkeyamo) November 27, 2023
This is coming after the Lagos-Abuja flight of United Nigeria Airlines was diverted to Asaba, Delta State capital, due to poor weather conditions.
The flight, NUA 0504, took off on Sunday (yesterday) from the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Terminal 2, and was headed for Abuja.
However, the pilot grounded the aircraft at the Asaba International Airport, and that caused some confusion among the passengers.
The summoning by the minister is coming less than 24 hours after Sunday PUNCH story of November 26 with the title, “Risky voyage: Passengers fret over increasing runway slips, crash-landings”.
The report mirrored the harrowing experiences of air passengers who have recently escaped episodes of runway excursions, crash landings, and other slips.
It also revealed the concerns of several aviation stakeholders and the challenges faced by the sector regarding infrastructure, management and navigational safety, amongst others.
In 14 days, the country witnessed three runway excursions in two international airports.
So far, there have been no fewer than 10 reported incidents this year.