By Nurat Uthman
Following a social media post by a former director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Mr. Joe Abah, revealing how a ground engineer, yesterday, prevented what could have turned out an air disaster, Ibom Air said the aircraft, with a bad nose gear, had been taken to the hangar for repairs.
Abah, in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), yesterday, said the pilot of the aircraft, while preparing for take-off, was warned about a bad landing gear
Reacting to the incident, Ibom Air, in a statement, yesterday, said: “This morning (yesterday), on our 7 am flight from Lagos to Abuja, while the aircraft was pushing back from the gate, under the supervision of the monitoring engineer, he noticed an issue with the nose gear. The engineer, who wore a headset to communicate with the pilots, promptly drew the attention of the pilot in charge to his observation.
“The decision was made to inspect the nose, and passengers had to be disembarked. This is a routine practice in the industry. The supervising engineers remain vigilant in inspecting an aircraft until it departs. While the aircraft has since been taken to the hangar to have the problem fixed, we regret the delay in delivering our usual service to our valued passengers. We will always take precautions and prioritise the safety of our passengers.”
Meanwhile, when Vanguard contacted the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to know if it had received the incident report, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCAA, Mr Michael Achimugu, said: “I am not in Abuja at the moment. I am attending an official assignment in Port Harcourt. Will ask and revert.”
