•Keyamo and Kila
Renowned political economist and Commonwealth Institute Director, Prof. Anthony Kila, has condemned the order by the aviation minister, Festus Keyamo, to suspend operations of Dana Airline.
The Frontier reports that the minister has directed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to suspend Dana Air, a day after one of the airline’s planes skidded off the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos runway.
But in a chat this afternoon with The Frontier, the popular public affairs analyst Kila, said the news of the suspension of the airline by the minister “is not impressive”.
The don said, “Dear Hon Minister, the news that you are grounding Dana Air is not impressive. It is even unfortunate.
“The right intervention should be investigation and extra vigilance. What we need now is more business and movement, not less. We can insist on extra check on each aircraft before take off.
“Also, interventions should be coming from related agencies, not the ministry.”
The Frontier reports that Dana Air aircraft, with 83 passengers and registration number 5N BKI flying from Abuja to Lagos, suffered a runway excursion at the Lagos Murtala Mohammed airport yesterday.
A runway excursion occurs when an aircraft veers off the runway in use during the take-off or landing run.
Dana Air said in a statement after the incident, that all the passengers were safely disembarked with no injuries.
It added that the aircraft had been grounded by the maintenance team, pending further investigation.
