What is Arik Airlines up to? By George Eze Emeghara

On Sunday, 18 March, passengers boarding the airline’s first flight to Lagos had to rush out of the plane as smoke filled the cabin of the plane . The pilots quickly shut down the engine and everyone disembarked.
Again the aircraft involved was a Bombardier. I don’t know how many Bombardiers Arik has in its fleet, but chances are that this was the same plane that smoke filled its cabin on the flight to Accra about two weeks ago. If it is the same plane as I believe it is, then it is clear that whatever caused the smoke on the way to Accra has not been solved. Why should the plane have been put back in service when the operators knew it was not in tip top condition? Why should these airlines be allowed to gamble with people’s lives? Many of the air crashes in this country were caused by the recklessness and over confidence of airlines and pilots.
The EAS plane which crashed in Kano in 2002 or 2003 had issues. According to the accident report, the pilot was told to “manage” the airplane back to Lagos so the mechanics could look at it. It was cheaper for them to do so than to fly mechanics out to Kano to fix it. The pilot chose to fly it to Lagos with a full load of passengers and could not even muster enough power to take off. He crashed into some houses just outside the airport, at the end of the runway. The Bellview plane which crashed in 2005 was said to have caught fire on landing at Abidjan airport a few weeks before it crashed. It is likely that it was not properly fixed before they put it back into service. The ADC crash in Abuja in 2005 in which the Sultan of Sokoto, among others, perished occurred after the pilot ignored the advice of ground control about weather conditions. He was said to be in a hurry. Even the Sosoliso crash of 2006 may not have happened if the pilot had listened to ground control about wind conditions. Who will save us from these mad people who insist on gambling with people’s lives? Why should anyone seek to ” manage” a defective airplane? The authorities should take a closer look at what these airlines are doing in order to protect all who fly. Arik should endeavour to fix their Bombardier plane properly. If they can’t do so, let them ground the plane. Members of the public should be careful about their choice of airlines. They should avoid the cash strapped ones. Those ones tend to cut more corners. I will conclude with a story about a friend’s, experience to underline this. Several years ago a friend of mine and I were going from Abuja to Lagos where he lives. When we got to the airport, EAS was boarding passengers. He rushed and bought a ticket. I just stood there. When he returned he asked me if I wasn’t travelling anymore. I told him that I don’t fly airlines like EAS. He abused me, called me a fool and asked me whether my father owned an airline. I just laughed at him as he rushed to catch his flight. I bought a ticket for an Aero flight which was leaving an hour later. Then, Aero was in reasonably good shape.
When I got to Lagos I went to my friend’s residence in Ikeja where we had agreed to meet. He wasn’t there and I wasn’t able to reach him on his phone. I ate, relaxed in front of the TV and dozed off. About three hours later he staggered in. I asked him what delayed him. According to him they were kept in the plane on the tarmac for about three hours because the plane had no fuel. He said he could bet that it was the money they paid that was used to buy aviation fuel eventually. I almost died of laughter. I told him that he could now see why I don’t fly such airlines and asked him who was the fool now. So, don’t be foolish. Avoid cash strapped or poorly managed airlines. Accidents don’t just happen. Something causes them.

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