Daily Champion (Lagos)
Anthony Omoh
2 November 2009
Reactions have continued to trail recent embarrassing events in the air transport industry all over the world including the mid air fight in Air India flight IC884 between pilots and cabin crew.
In Nigeria, experts and stakeholders have readily condemned the air rage and some have called on the federal government to state categorically the kind of punishment that would ensue if such an act occurs.
Industry participant who spoke with Daily Champion on the issue said that as it stands in India all those involved in the air rage including have got their just desserts and stand the risk of prosecution for criminal action including endangering the lives of 106 passengers on board the aircraft.
He added that the pilots who were 'occupied' with their laptops on the North West aircraft also stand the chance of losing their licenses and going to jail.
He said." The rules are clear on that both for the airlines and the civil Regulations; there is a flight deck policy that must not be breached most especially during the sterile period. Well northwest airlines has taken a strong position on the pilots that over flew Minneapolis-St. Paul airport also Indian airlines have taken a tough stand on the unruly crew by Grounding them pending investigation"
He however maintained that Part 14 Annex 58 of the NCAA Act is vague calling for an amendment of the law to enable the law take its course.
Ohunayo said,"Part 14 Annex 58 of the NCAA Act states that "the authority may by regulations prohibit certain acts which constitute unruly or indecent behaviour on board aircraft in or over Nigeria and such regulations may include appropriate criminal sanctions". This in my opinion is vague and it might be very difficult for the Police to go ahead and prosecute successfully. "We really need to act down here and the first point, is to amend the Civil Aviation Act, which is long over due thereafter the airlines."
Spokesman of Nigerian Eagle Airline, Francis Aiyegbe in his reaction said that there are two sets of crew on an aircraft, flight and cabin crew, stating that airline disciplinary action is applicable to both
He however argued that every country determines and evaluates its threat level so punishment for unruly bahaviour has to be measured according to the crime.
He said," You must understand that every country determines and evaluates its threat level in coming up with this, for instance what is the degree of disruptive behaviour, per aircraft, per day, per month, per quarter, etc. the propensity, normal, rising, etc will then determine the issue."
He however disagreed that the CIVIL Aviation Act needed review because of unruly passengers and asked what the authorities have done to handle previous cases of disruptive passengers.
He surmised by stating that, "Disruptive passengers are world- wide, airlines are forbidden for instance to stop serving them alcohol while crew is to alert security on ground upon arrival. So you see, saying CAA is ambiguous is not the issue. "
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