The federal government has adduced reason it will thoroughly investigate Dana Airline whose flight recently overshot the runway of the Port Harcourt Airport.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said the federal government will beam its searchlight on Dana Air and other airlines operating in the country to ensure that Nigerians travelling by air are safe.
The incident involving a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 jet happened at about 7:30 pm on Tuesday. None of the 44 passengers and six crew on board was injured.
Sirika, who visited the scene of the incident at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Rivers state, explained that the federal government, had through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, increased oversight on all airlines, with particular attention on Dana.
According to him, the reason for the increased attention on Dana was because the airline has lately been in the news for the wrong reasons.
Sirika said, “We have increased our oversight on all the airlines in the country with particular attention to Dana Air, having been in the news for bad reasons lately. So, we are taking it seriously; and since the first incident, the NCAA has been on the matter regarding Dana and other airlines.
“All the standards and the recommended practices are regulated worldwide the same way; and Nigeria recently has done very well in aviation. We scored 96.4 per cent in security when ICAO did the safety audit of the country.
“For the first two airports were certified by ICAO; the two airports are in Lagos and Abuja. We are doing everything we can to certify all airports. Nigeria scored over 67 per cent last year on safety.
“We are on our way to ensuring that everything is perfect in the aviation industry. We want to assure the general public that whatever it will cost us to maintain this high standards and improve upon them, we will do it.”
