Suspended airline ready to restructure
By Wole Shadare,
Aviation Reporter
AWEEK after its suspension, the Dornier Aviation Nigeria AIEP (DANA) has expressed its readiness to comply with safety regulations.
In a statement made available to The Guardian at the weekend, the spokesman for DANA, Bashir A. Chedi, said the airline had already submitted its response to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
He noted that in the effort to reposition the company to provide more efficient and high quality aviation services to its customers, its board of directors recently approved the restructuring of the airline.
His words: "Consequently, a new management is being put in place while huge reinvestment is also being made in terms of high-tech machines to improve on the services and accommodate greater tasks in aviation technology".
Chedi stated that the management of DANA would continue to have a cordial relationship with all the regulatory agencies in the country. "Our commitment to the highest standard of safety and reliability will ever remain uncompromising and topmost in our priorities", he said.
The Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda's suspension of the airline was because of the recommendations from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the agency charged with the responsibility to oversee safety regulation in the aviation industry.
The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Chief Tomi Oyelade, had in a statement said: "The airline had no accountable manager as required by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR)", stressing that this pointed to lack of accountability in air worthiness and general safety matters.
The statement added that DANA's maintenance shops were being manned by unqualified personnel due to the retrenchment of the airline's qualified maintenance personnel, "while the calibration of tools was not carried out as at when due".
Special Assistant (Media) to the Director-General of NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the NCAA also found the airline operator guilty of "dangerous operations as a result of lack of accountability and complete destruction of exporting methods".
But it was not stated whether the suspension clamped on the airline was indefinite or subject to a review after a specific period.
With the suspension, the airline ceases to operate either its scheduled or chartered flights or any of its aircraft, neither will it offer aircraft maintenance services to its Kaduna-based hanger.
The suspension of DANA brings to three the number of airlines that have suffered this fate in the last six months.
Slok and IRS Airlines were on March 12 suspended for safety reasons.
While Slok was banned for what the Aviation Ministry called "unethical practice", IRS was accused of destroying a navigational aid, the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Kaduna Airport.
Four days after, IRS was unbanned while Slok Air remains banned.
For over 25 years, DANA has grown to become one of Nigeria's leading aviation organisations. The airline provides maintenance and training support services for owners of Dornier Aircraft, as well as high quality aircraft service and maintenance support to airlines, charter companies, private aircraft owners in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.
