NCAA Orders Review Of Pilots Licences

The Nigeria Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA) has written to all operating airlines in Nigeria requesting for the review of licences of their pilots to ensure that they are in tandem with what it has in its system and to stop pilots who may be flying with licences not approved by the regulatory body.
This, The Tide learnt is to forestall possible safety breach by  in experienced pilots who may be using questionable licence or those whose licence did not go through the right process for needed approval.
Industry sources said that Nigeria has to make laws to curtail the influx of expatriate pilots and engineers into the country and save the nation’s aviation sector.
The source said that the review of these licences was necessary “because we have to ensure that the pilot is qualified and that is why we carry out due diligence on pilots that come to work in this country. That is why we asked for the review of the licences of all the pilots working in the country.
In reviewing these licences, NCAA would contact the country of origin of these pilots to ensure that authencity of these licences.
We have been doing this for years. Before a pilot is allowed to operate in this country we investigate his licence and write to the country where he is coming from. If he is coming from the US we write to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) if he is coming from the UK, we write to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. We are going to do the same while reviewing these licences”, the source said.
The source also disclosed that this is one of the measures being taken by the regulatory body to ensure that the right pilots are operating aircraft in Nigeria and to as much as possible to ensure that flight operation is safe in the country.
Speaking about the influx of expatriates, the source wondered why the Ministry of Internal Affairs allow some airlines to exceed their quota of expatriates, urging that Nigeria should make a law that ensures that every expatriate pilot or engineer would have limited period of stay in the country and must have a Nigerian by his side whom he would train in the course of his duties.
Speaking in the vein president of the National Association of Aircraft pilot and Engineers (NAAPE) Mr Isaac Balami once noted that Africa has been a training ground for some of these expatriates and suggested a check on the trend.

The last Batch of Christian Prigrims on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, recently. Photo: NAN.