Stowaway gets scholarship, NCAA probes Arik pilots, FAAN
August 29, 2013 by Oyetunji Abioye and Sodiq Oyeleke
Stowaway:
Pix 1: A teenage boy, Daniel Ihekina, who hid in the tyre hole of Arik
Air flying from Benin to Lagos. Pix 2: The boy being led away by
security agents.
Aviation
industry regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has started
probing the ArikAir pilots and officials of the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria over alleged security breaches that led to the
arrest of a 15-year-old stowaway, Daniel Oikhena, at Lagos Airport on
Saturday.
This is even as the boy on Wednesday
landed a scholarship to study free to university level and fulfil his
dream of flying to the United States of America.
The pilot, The PUNCH learnt,
might lose his licence or be fined huge sum of money if ongoing
investigation by the regulators found him guilty of not aborting the
flight for safety checks, following the alleged passenger’s report of
presence of a strange boy some metres from the plane.
Already, the regulatory authority has
commenced full investigation into the matter, the Director-General,
NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, disclosed to our correspondent on
Wednesday.
Although the NCAA boss declined to
specify the nature of penalty it would impose on Arik Air, its pilot or
the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria if they were found guilty, he
however said, “If at the end of the day we discover that somebody has
not done what it should do, then the appropriate sections of the law
will take its full course.”
Akinkuotu stressed that there were
penalties and sanctions for breaches in the sector’ and assured that the
regulatory agency would not shy away from upholding safety and security
regulations in the aviation sector.
On the blames being traded by Arik and FAAN, the NCAA boss said the investigation would reveal whoever was liable.
He said, “Arik might say that FAAN did
not provide adequate security, but safety challenges are assuming new
trends everyday. The responsibility of any flight lies with the
operator. Arik too has responsibility. It was reported that a passenger
raised an alarm. If there is merit in that, it means there was a
possibility of doing something about it. All these our investigation
will unravel.”
The NCAA boss however said that the agency, in the meantime, had put in place measures to stop future re-occurrence.
“Every aircraft that is departing will
be followed until take-off. FAAN security will follow them. On our part,
we have to continue to monitor everything. There will be greater
monitoring at the perimeter fence and access control now.”
Akinkuotu said that the issue of stowaway was age-long and not peculiar to Nigeria and the aviation sector.
“Stowaway has been age-long since the
time when ship was invented; those with criminal intent will also be
looking for ways to break the law,” he said.
Aviation security expert and former
Military Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Group
Captain John Ojikutu, retd, said the Benin incident had shown that the
NCAA needed to audit and investigate the Arik Air security programme and
the Benin Airport security programme.
Ojikutu said, “That boy could have been a
courier for terrorists. The NCAA needs to find out how the boy knew
part of the aircraft and where to enter. How are we sure somebody did
not assist him. If the Benin Airport access control and perimeter
fencing is not porous, how did he get into the aircraft.”
Meanwhile, Oikhena has been offered a
scholarship by the De Raufs’ Volunteer Group, a group of supporters of
Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The Director-General of the group,
Amitolu Shittu, in a statement on Wednesday, said the scholarship was
offered to the stowaway to enable the boy to achieve his target of
travelling through the air.
http://www.punchng.com/news/stowaway-gets-scholarship-ncaa-probes-arik-pilots-faan/
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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