Arik Air Blames FAAN For Accident

Simon Ateba

The obsolete apron markings at the Jos airport made an Arik plane to brush the wing of a parked NAF aircraft yesterday, the airline’s Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, has said.

Ndulue said that the markings at the Jos airport were obsolete and not designed to suit modern aircraft’s wing span.

The markings at Nigerian airports are carried out by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN.

“The markings on the tarmac of the Jos Airport are old markings which did not take into cognizance the use of bigger aircraft like Boeing 737-700 or 737-800 which we have in our fleet and are capable of misleading pilots during taxing. We hope this incident will make FAAN to re-do those markings,” Ndulue said.

Ndulue said the incident was blown out of proportion by a section of the Nigerian media for some ulterior motives.

FAAN Head of Public Affairs, Mr. Akin Olukunle did not return our calls and text messages.

With Nigerian airlines acquiring bigger aircraft now, if Arik’s allegations are founded, similar incidents are likely to re-occur.

An Arik Air’s Boeing 737-700 aircraft marked 5N MJI and a Nigerian Air Force C-130 (NAF 917) aircraft were involved in an incident on the tarmac of Yakubu Gowon Airport, Heipang, Jos yesterday.

The Arik Air aircraft on a scheduled flight from Jos to Lagos brushed the wing of the parked NAF aircraft while taxing causing damages to the wings of both aircraft.

The tank 1 wing tip of the NAF C-130 as well as the left winglet of the Arik Air’s Boeing 737-700 Next Generation (NG) aircraft were damaged.

Ndlue said that contrary to reports in the media, the incident did not lead to the gushing out of fuel from the damaged area of the Boeing 737-700 as the aircraft’s tanks are well protected.

It was learnt that a team of Arik Air officials comprising of the Chairman, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, the Chief Pilot, Captain Adetokunbo Adekunbi and Safety Manager, Captain Jide Bakare were in Jos today to assess the damage caused by the incident.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was also in the team that visited Jos yesterday.