Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, says troubled Turkish Airlines has compensated aggrieved passengers whose luggages were left behind in its flight TK 624 scheduled service from Istanbul to Abuja.
The regulatory agency stated that the airline paid full monetary compensation as contained in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, Nig.CARs.
The agency also said Close Circuit Television, CCTV camera footage would be deployed to identify the unruly passengers for prosecution in order to dissuade others from carrying out similar act in future.
Statement issued by General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the airline under the supervision of its Consumer Protection Officers, CPO, ensured that all passengers were fully compensated.
Also, he said a cargo flight and an Airbus aircraft were arranged to freight to the country all contentious backlog of baggage that were earlier left behind by the airline, stressing that all concerned passengers had collected same as at the time of this report.
He said these were contained in a report of the investigation carried out by NCAA over the recent tarmac intrusion by the airline’s passengers submitted to Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman.
The statement added, “There were several observations and recommendations in the report. These include provision of signages informing passengers of possible penalties of unlawful acts at the airport. Furthermore, clear cut penalties arising from unlawful acts should be displayed to serve as deterrent to would-be violators.
“Close Circuit Television footage will be deployed and the Turkish Airlines should assist in identifying the unruly passengers for prosecution to dissuade others from carrying out similar acts subsequently.”
Adurogboye stated that in the final phase of the investigation, salient questions would be asked concerning airport management, noting that if established, sanctions would be applied for violating access control requirements in the National Civil Aviation Security Programme, NCASP, chapters 4.5 (a),6.1.4.6.2.1 and 6.3.2.
Also, the requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations Part 17 section 17.37.1-3.
“NCAA has also directed the appropriate agencies to put up appropriate control mechanism strong enough to prevent unauthorised access to restricted areas of the airports forthwith. These recommendations and others would be implemented to the letter to foreclose and mitigate future occurrence.”
It would be recalled that the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, recently ordered the immediate suspension of the Airport Manager of Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja and Head of Aviation Security, AVSEC, and terminal manager over the invasion of tarmac by passengers of Turkish Airlines.
Sirika also ordered the Consumer Protection Directorate of NCAA to investigate the event and act appropriately.
Sirika had called to question the management of Turkish Airlines on why they airlifted their passengers without their without their luggage.
The suspended officials were immediately told to hand over to their next in rank pending the conclusion of the investigation, even as the minister stressed that explanations offered by officials of the airport that security personnel on duty were overpowered was unacceptable to the government.
No comments:
Post a Comment