Prime Business Africa
Hours after Prime Business Africa reported that a ground handling equipment damaged a new aircraft acquired by Air Peace and disrupted at least nine flights on Friday, aviation regulatory agency, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained the circumstances surrounding the incident and absolving the airline of any wrongdoing.
Michael Achimugu, the NCAA’s Director Public Affairs and Consumer Protection who took to his verified X account to explain the situation noted that passengers had to be deboarded when a ground handler’s conveyor belt hit the aircraft, causing damage to the engine cover.
READ MORE: Ground Handling Equipment Damages Air Peace New Aircraft, Disrupts 9 Flights
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAchimugu, who listed series of other mishaps that affected the airline due to no fault of its, said: “Today’s aircraft was one of the brand new E2’s, and it was fully booked until January 15th, 2026. Now, all innocent passengers booked for its operations will experience one delay or cancellation.”
Read the full text of Dr Achimugu’s Friday evening post on his official X account:
AIR PEACE DISRUPTED FLIGHT:
Passengers were already boarded when a ground handler’s conveyor belt hit the aircraft, causing damage to the engine cover.
Passengers had to be deboarded. The aircraft was scheduled to fly nine sectors. All passengers waiting for its operations are automatically disrupted, and the airline will face backlash, refund issues, compensation, etc, for a damage that was not its fault, and it would spend large sums of foreign currency to fix.
The other time, it was a bird strike that cost (by the airline’s admission), over three million dollars to fix. It took an entire month for the airline manufacturer to send them the replacement for the “engine cowling dent.”
Today’s aircraft was one of the brand new E2’s, and it was fully booked until January 15th, 2026. Now, all innocent passengers booked for its operations will experience one delay or cancellation.
But airlines will not throw other service providers under the bus. They will simply announce “technical/operational reasons” and then they would bear, not just the anger of justifiably aggravated passengers, but the consequences per Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.
Air Peace has suffered a lot of these technical issues through no fault of theirs. We need to start naming and shaming poorly trained ground handling personnel whose inefficiency costs the airlines great reputational, financial, and technical damage. We will now be looking to strengthen the regulations in a way that also heavily sanctions service providers for matters like the type in the images below.
Airlines should not be held responsible for situations like this, and passengers should be informed, most honestly, about the reasons for disruptions caused by these unfortunate scenarios.
I do hope that there is enough insurance to cover the cost of losses like this one.
In advance, I call for the understanding of passengers who were scheduled to fly this aircraft. I have asked about standby aircraft. The airline has two (which is commendable), but those two have been deployed to cover two other similar situations. In any case, even if they were available, their sitting capacities are less than the damaged E2.
These are some of the behind-the-scene situations that make airlines seem culpable. We must educate more, and ensure to unbundle the facts so that the industry does not continue to seem like a secret coven that swallows information behind layers of cover-ups.
To Air Peace, and indeed all domestic operators, I empathize with you in moments like this.
Thankfully, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ensured that access to forex is not longer as difficult as it used to be. I know that this does not mitigate the costs of repairs, neither does it make up for the lost time and possible profits, but I salute your resoluteness in keeping the business running.
May Nigeria succeed.
