Following the recent incident involving United Nigeria, the federal government has directed that all wet-leased aircraft coming into Nigeria must have a Nigeria pilot seated on the jump seat with the foreign pilot
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo, during a meeting with heads of aviation agencies and media briefing on the recent happenings in the industry, directed that all cabin crew of wet-leased aircraft must be Nigerians to ease interaction between the passengers and cabin crews.
The minister while explaining the Sunday incident explained that from the transcript produced by the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) from the tower to the pilot, it was clear that when the flight was taking off from Lagos, it was headed to Asaba instead of Abuja.
He said there was no weather problem in Abuja but a problem with a wet-leased plane where the pilot and crew were all foreigners.
“They were not familiar with the Nigerian terrain. From the transcript, we heard the tower kept asking the pilot: ‘Confirm again that you are going to Abuja not Asaba’. The pilot replied no, Asaba. Before they took off the tower asked again, and it was the same response,” the minister narrated.
He said the incident was purely an in-house administrative issue, disclosing that the government has asked them to interview the dispatcher who dispatched that plane “and where sanctions should apply we should apply sanctions”.
Source: guardian.ng