DANA Incident :Tukur warns against stripping NCAA’s autonomy

Former Assistant General Secretary of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Alhaji Mohammed Tukur
has warned against the danger of undermining the autonomy of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA).

Alhaji Tukur in a statement described the the grounding of all the fleet of the DANA by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Barrister Festus Keyamo as a usurpation of the powers of the NCAA.

“The action of the Minister is like putting our civil aviation on a reverse to the era between the late eighties and the early time of the present democratic dispensation when President Obasanjo for no just course ordered the grounding of the entire Chanchangi fleet over Bellview crash.”

He noted that the development was a dangerous signal that must be repealed so that the civil aviation authority would not be relegated to an appendage of the Ministry.

The former AON scribe further described the grounding of DANA, an airline that just scaled through the economic audit of the NCAA as unfortunate stressing that it was also happening at the wake of the authority’s successful safety audit and FAA’s category one.

“It’s ironic for Keyamo who recently complained of high insurance rates and leasing costs faced by the Nigerian operators to come up with such hammer on DANA which gives an impression that our CAA lacks independence and oversight capability”.

Alhaji Tukur further observed that there was likely an aqua plain on the runway because of the rain saying that it was necessary to have waited for the investigators to come up with the plenary report while only the aircraft involved should have been grounded.