On Sunday, November 26th, a United Airlines flight NUA 0504 departing Lagos to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, diverted to Asaba International Airport, which prompted the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu, to announce that the agency will commence investigation into the occurrence.
The news of the flight diversion began spreading on social media, after a former aide to the national chairman of All Progressive Congress (APC), Dawisu Tanko, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that a United Nigeria flight which he boarded enroute Abuja, informed passengers that they had arrived the Abuja airport, only to discover that they had landed in Asaba International Airport.
He said: “We departed Lagos about an hour ago on @flyunitedng to Abuja and upon arrival, the cabin crew confidently announced that we have arrived at Abuja, only for us to realize that we landed in Asaba. Apparently, our pilot was given the wrong flight plan from Lagos.”
Shortly after he made the post, X erupted into banter and some who had been on the flight begun posting light hearted jokes, narrating their experiences in the most hilarious manner. A user; Tesidorth said: “Pilot miss road, carry us go Asaba instead of Abuja”, while another user, Emmanuel said: “During my turn, he should change route to Canada or Germany’, while another said, “He stopped so that you can buy suya and continue the journey” and another said, “Both locations start with A and ends with A”.
When the original poster, Dawisu said: “We are departing Asaba now, I pray we don’t land in Osogbo next,” someone asked, “The pilot didn’t remember the route?” and Dawisu responded saying, “He is a white man apparently.”
Though many Nigerians made light of the situation, an aviation expert, Amos Akpan, told Daily Sun that what happened was not an accident but a function of human error which does not require a Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) investigation. He insised that Nigeria’s aviation industry is very safe and doesn’t have frequent incidents compared to other countries.
“What happened to United Airlines flight was human error by both the flight dispatcher on duty and the Pilot-in-Command of that flight. It was not an accident and that is why it only requires NCAA oversight response and not NSIB investigation. The Nigerian aviation industry does not have too frequent incidents compared to the volume of activities and compared with other countries. We have very vibrant industry full of operational activities and incidents of this type are few.
“Our aviation industry is practicing very stringent safety standards closely supervised by the NCAA and every operator has an approved operational specifications guiding her operations. NCAA approves these ops specs and monitors compliance by operators. The step taken by NCAA is in line with its regulations (NCARS part 8.10.1.30). The agency’s response takes care of the now and also proactive,” he said.
The president of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) Abednego Galadima, also noted that what happened was due to human error. He told Daily Sun that considering the fact the aircraft is wet leased, there is need for foreign pilots working in Nigeria to undergo an environmental familiarisation course.
He also made a case for domestic airlines to engage the services of more Nigerian pilots who understand the terrain and the Nigerian airspace and ensure that they are not overshadowed by their foreign counterparts.
Galadima, who is an instructor at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), said such occurrences happen occasionally and is usually due to human factor.
“Such occurrences happen once in a while and it usually originates from human factors, which is a mistake of filing a flight plan. This would have been figured out if the pilot and crew were all Nigerians. From what is emerging, the control tower guided the pilot to head to Asaba as against its destination which is Abuja.
“Even if the dispatcher filed the flight plan in error, what was on the pilot’s program? Why didn’t he collaborate with the second officer? It’s good the NCAA is looking into it because in aviation, human factor is very key. We are very lucky this didn’t take a security dimension. It is human beings that are running the industry, so you don’t expect perfection but we have to be thankful that things have improved from when we used to have frequent crashes in the past to having manageable incidences and I believe there is more to be done. Progress has been made and it should be sustained.
“Before now, every foreign pilot goes through what we call environmental familiarisation course at NCAT but over time, it was jettisoned. There also used to be a 60:40 ratio of crew, which is what NAAPE has been talking about, especially the expatriate quota in wet lease arrangements.
“Nigerian professionals don’t benefit much from wet lease arrangements and it’s something that needs to be addressed. Nigerian pilots understand the terrain, so such an occurrence is likely not to happen if a Nigerian pilot was flying the plane but foreign pilots lack situational awareness and sometimes have communication problems. We also don’t want a situation where a Nigerian pilot is given a nominal role, they should be pilots in command and in monitoring. They are equally well trained and they know the job,” he said.