‘Why Dana Air Remains On Suspension’

Those hoping that Dana
Air may soon resume operations will have to wait longer as there is no immediate plan to lift the suspension clamped on the airline on October 5, last year when one of its aircraft suffered engine failure on flight from Port Harcourt to Lagos.
The Tide learnt from authoritative source that the major reason why the airline was suspended was to forestall another possible crash or another major incident as the engines of the aircraft in the fleet showed inconsistency in airworthiness tests.
The source said that what led to the Dana Air flight 092 crash on June 3, 2013 in Lagos which killed 153 persons on board was engine failure and six months after when the airline resumed operations, it continued to record engine problems so the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had to ground its operations.
“When there is a trend you have to arrest it in order to forestall possible accident. The engines of the aircraft in the Dana Air fleet continued to experience engine failure plus malfunctions, so it is the business of NCAA to say, lets pull back and look at the processes. We are now examining the processes”, the source said.
The source further said that in spite of the clamour for the carline to resume operations, the NCAA, in the bid to save lives and to effectively carry out its oversight functions, has continued to suspend the operations of the airline.
Specifically, NCAA is looking at the airline’s processes which include its maintenance profile and the skills of its engineers to maintain the craft engineers.
The source acknowledged that there is no inherent problem with the MD series of aircraft in the airline’s fleet because most of them still operate in the US and in Europe. The problem however rests with maintenance of the engines of the planes.
The regulatory body had since directed that the workshop or the engineers that maintained the aircraft engines should be charged, which the airline and since complied to in addition to carrying out other directives given by NCAA to ensure that the airline would maintain a safe operation when it resumes service.
The source explained why it was taking longer time before the airline’s suspension would be lifted. They submitted a report, we have to study the report, we gave them what to correct, That is what they are working on now. We have to collate the responses. After the review we will make the decision. So that everything about lifting the suspension of the airline is process driven”, the source stated.
It would be recalled that Dana Air Management is diligently abiding by the directives given to it by NCAA as the objective is to make the airline conduct safe operations whenever it resumes.