After the Ibom Air flight drama between it’s passenger, Comfort Emmanson and flight crew at Lagos Airport, aviation authorities say the safety regulation of switching off mobile phones and other devices during critical phases of flights will be strongly enforced
The directive to airlines which came through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA at the Emergency National Civil Aviation Security Committee and stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Tuesday also banned flight mode of phones on domestic flights
Director General of the agency, Captain Chris Najomo also ordered all Nigerian air operators to amend their operations’ manual to reflect the latest requirement and submit to the NCAA for approval.
Najomo maintained that it remains the responsibility of the flight crew to communicate flight operation requirements to passengers, and the responsibility of the passengers to comply.
Capt. Najomo warned that unruly behaviour in the industry cannot be tolerated. “Henceforth, things wouldn’t be as usual. If you are unruly, you are unruly. From category one to category four, will be taken care of henceforth.”
The director general pointed out that the objectives are to analyse and fully understand the chain of failures including technological, procedural, human, that permitted these incidents; Unify and strengthen inter-agency coordination, especially between NCAA, FAAN, AVSEC, security services, and law enforcement in Determining and deploying immediate corrective measures to ensure a safe and secure airport infrastructure as well as enforcing personnel compliance
The Authority tasked aviation security to step up regulatory enforcement to improve safety and reduce the rising cases of poor handling of issues between passengers and aviation staff.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
