British aircraft fine: Aviation ministry blames NASS for poor punishment

The Ministry of Aviation has urged the National Assembly to quickly complete legislative work on the civil aviation regulations bill forwarded to it a few months ago.

After Nigerians criticized the N1million fine slammed on a British carrier, Flairjet by the Federal Government for illegal flight operations under the Coronavirus lockdown, the Ministry of Aviation spokesperson, James Odaudu, said the pending bill will strengthen the operations of the sector.

More than a week ago, a Legacy 600 aircraft belonging to Flairjet with registration G-ERFX was impounded by the Federal Government at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos for carrying out commercial flight operations amid the ban on such flights in Nigeria under the Coronavirus lockdown.

After grounding the aircraft, the Federal Government quarantined the pilots and crew of the carrier for 14 days and announced that all necessary fines against the British aviation company would be applied to the fullest.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on his official Twitter handle, said Flairjet was made to pay a total penalty of N1m by the Federal Government for violating some sections of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Regulations.

Flairjet were found to violate our Civil Aviation Regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV)7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2(VIII)(4). The maximum penalty for each is N500,000:00K. We caused them to pay and reported their callous misdemeanor to UK CAA, MFA and the UK High Commission.☹️???

— Hadi Sirika (@hadisirika) May 24, 2020

Many Nigerians were not happy with fine slammed on the British carrier, Flairjet, by the Federal Government and described it as a weak punishment which poses danger for the sector.

Odaudu said there is a need for the National Assembly to quickly pass the Civil Aviation Regulations Bill which has been forwarded to it more than three months ago.

The British air carrier, Flairjet was found violating the Civil Aviation Regulations IS 1.3.3 (a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2(4).

Nigerian airports have been under lockdown to commercial flights for more than two months as part of measures to tackle the spread of Coronavirus in the country.