On his recent visit to the country, Grant Emina, an American-based Nigerian, took a flight to Benin City, Edo State, to spend time with his grandparents. Looking through the window of the aircraft as it prepared to take-off from the Lagos airport, he was surprised to see a plethora of disused aircraft at the airport. Emina was further confounded at the sight of more discarded aircraft at the Benin City Airport. “This trend does not only constitute an eyesore, it is also dangerous for operating safe flights”, he remarked. As a member of the cabin crew of a leading American airliner, he has been to several international airports, but never has he seen any place where aircraft are unwittingly abandoned within the vicinity of the airport.

Across several airports in the country, abandoned or disused aircraft, numbering over 100, have constituted a menace to air operations. Ironically, airlines that have for long collapsed are the chart busters. They include Okada Air; KOLKOL; Chrome; Afrijet; Gas Air; Aviation Development Corporation; ADC; Albarka; NICON Airways; Chanchangi; Fresh Air Limited; Executive Aviation Services, EAS; Space World; IRS; Allied and UMAR. Others are Sosoliso; Harka Air; Harco; Freedom Air; Kabo Air; Savannah; Hamza; Bellview; Triax and Oriental; Capital Air; DHL; Easy Link; Skyline Aviation, Intercontinental Air; Aero Contractors; Concorde Southern Air; Buray Air; Associated Airlines and Dasab. The general aviation terminal, GAT, Lagos, plays host to over 20 of these aircraft. At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Albarka’s abandoned BAC1-11 aircraft, alongside those of Chanchangi and IRS compete for space. Okada

Air, once the pride of the Nigerian aviation industry, has the highest number of abandoned aircraft at Benin City Airport with its 19 unserviceable BAC 1-11 and Boeing 727 aircraft types; while aircraft belonging to Kabo Air and Chanchangi are abandoned at Kano and Kaduna airports.

Akin Olukunle, general manager, public affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, while calling on operators of such aircraft to remove them to the graveyard, explained that apart from occupying space, investigations by his agency had further revealed that there were certain emissions from the abandoned aircraft that affected navigational signals at the airport. Investigations by the magazine showed that environmental issues have also cropped up over the continued stay of these aircraft at the airport. At a point in time, some of these aircraft were being used as restaurant and spots for nefarious activities. Mohammed Tukur, assistant secretary, Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, expressed fears that given the current financial crunch affecting the industry, some operators that are badly hit and who desire to cut cost, could be forced to cannibalise the abandoned planes to service others that are working, a situation he described could be disastrous.

A close look at some of the rusty aircraft tells the story of the deterioration that has taken place. For now, such aircraft can only be sold as scraps to aluminum smelting companies or iron and steel factories. While aviation experts like Bayo Oguntade, canvass for sale of abandoned aircraft as scraps, the fear, they expressed, is that owners of the aircraft would not be favourably disposed to that option considering that

it would be sold for peanuts as against the high cost of acquiring the aircraft. Tukur agreed that it made more economic sense to sell these equipment off as scraps to aluminum smelting companies than abandoning them at the airports indefinitely.

Indeed several factors account for why removal of abandoned aircraft have remained a hydra-headed problem. In spite of the numerous ultimatums given to the owners of such aircraft by FAAN to that effect, the most recent being December 31, 2009, nothing seem to have happened.  For instance, while FAAN insists that the owners of such aircraft should either remove or dismantle them, AON, the umbrella body of airline owners, contends that FAAN had refused to provide suitable places, as contained in the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, guidelines where the unserviceable aircraft would be taken to. In aviation parlance, places where unserviceable aircraft are kept are known as graveyards.

Steve Mahonwu, chairman, AON, puts the blame on the agency. For him, FAAN is been insincere about the directive that they would remove the aircraft. “ICAO convention provides that the agency provides adequate places for abandoned aircraft, when we have befitting places for the aircraft the airlines will move them”, Mahonwu said. Olukunle insists that the agency had provided a graveyard at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, but said the airlines failed to obey FAAN’s order even when they knew the consequences of leaving the derelict aircraft at the airports.

Though FAAN maintains that it had built a graveyard for the aircraft at Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos, AON cl

claimed it had met severally with FAAN and reached a decision that a ‘mortuary’ should be built inside the airports. They pinned their position on the provisions in the ICAO rule which makes it mandatory for airports to provide a specialised place around each airport for disused planes to be parked or cannibalised. Operators argued that the Ejigbo dump site is far, and wondered how they were expected to move the aircraft to such a graveyard.

The ownership of the abandoned aircraft is also touted as a factor that has rendered FAAN powerless. Some of the aircraft are owned by prominent and influential Nigerians like Buba Marwa, a retired brigadier-general, and current high commissioner to the Republic of South Africa, (Albarka Air); Okada Air, owned by Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin; Chanchangi, owned by business magnate, Ahmadu Chanchangi; Concorde Airlines owned by late business mogul and philanthropist, Moshood Abiola; NICON Airways owned by Jimoh Ibrahim, Fresh Air, belongs to Augustine Okon; among others.

For now, a long drawn legal battle may be in the offing. Already, the operators have secured several court injunctions restraining FAAN from enforcing the removal of the abandoned aircraft or compelling them to do so, an action that has further made FAAN to apply caution. Until a truce is reached, then, the ugly sights and dangers posed by these aircraft lingers.

 

Emina: Confounded about discarded aircraft

Olukunle: Calls on operators to remove abandoned aircraft

Tukur: Concerned

Oguntade: Canvasses f

for sale of abandoned aircraft

Mahonwu: Blames FAAN for the problem