MANY Nigerians have continued to fail to recognise the uniqueness of the aviation sector, including the components that make up the entire system.
They have continued to fail to realise that the sector, because of its sensitive and critical roles, has become the most regulated sector run in line with international civil aviation rules and strict standards and recommended practices.
In other words, the same rules and standard practices are applicable anywhere, particularly those in the countries that are signatory members of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Since aviation has the rules backing its operations, particularly airlines’ relationship with passengers as contained in the ‘Passengers Bill of Right’, clearly stipulated by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s Consumer Protection Directorate, no passenger has the right to take laws into their hands, neither does any airline have the right to do same.
The NCAA as the regulatory agency of the country’s aviation sector should serve as the centre point where passenger/airline issues are tackled with fairness to the two sides.
For sure, the majority of the country’s travelling public should be aware of the existence of this Passengers’ Bill of Right which the NCAA’s Directorate of Consumer Protection has regularly announced for the purpose of protecting the rights of passengers in particular.
It was, therefore, shocking to hear how an aggrieved passenger who felt he was not well treated by Dana Air last week took the law into his hands by not only inflicting injury on a female staff of the airline but also destroyed both airport and the airline facilities running into millions of naira.
Since the ugly incident happened, the different social media platforms have been enmeshed in unjustifiable emotional sentiments which have again called for questioning the deliberate attitude of many Nigerians to allow emotions to ride over standard practices.
Or how can one encourage the reprehensible and uncivilised behaviour of the passenger who lost control and embarked on so much destruction of public facilities while others cheered him on.
The irresponsible behaviour became more shocking in view of the status of the said passenger and for the fact that he falls under the category of regular fliers who should know what to do under the scenario that pushed him into the embarrassing situation.
While no one is taking sides with Dana Air since there is no reason for it to fail to fulfill its part of the agreement not even when it had issued out boarding passes to them. But even at that, no matter the level of disappointment and frustration, the aggrieved passenger should have simply petitioned the NCAA and other relevant authorities rather than go on an unruly spree to the extent that he inflicted injury on a female staff.
Now that the aggrieved passenger has taken the law into his hand, has that solved his problems? For sure, rather than have his problems solved, the uncivilised attitude has put him into a serious problem which may send him to prison or make him pay seriously for destroying public facilities and injuring someone.
As the controversy rages on, I am calling on the NCAA to not only investigate the action, but compel Dana Air to compensate the passenger on one side, while the passenger should be sanctioned seriously and even prevented from flying through any of the country’s airports until he is able to control his emotion.
Sanctioning the passenger will serve as deterrence to other passengers who out of anger often become unruly at the airports at the slightest provocation.
Above all, the roles of the aviation securities, including the law enforcement agents present at the Abuja airport on the day in question should be thoroughly looked into since if they had carried out their functions, the unruly passenger would have been prevented from going that far.
In conclusion, passengers should not always expect 100 per cent service delivery from airlines as challenges are bound to happen at times as is the case all over the world, which many Nigerian international travelers do experience without daring to create any unpleasant scene.
To Dana Air and other domestic airlines, the unpalatable situation would have been avoided if passengers were carried along when the challenges cropped. Beside informing him, the airline according to the passengers bill of right has the responsibility to further accommodate him and other affected passengers under such crisis.
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