The fears earlier raised by the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo, and key players in the sector about the use of private charter operators to carry out illegal commercial flights and other questionable operations have called to question the security firmness of the country as it has been uncovered that private foreign registered aircraft are the greatest violators of the Civil aviation uses guiding charter flights.
Confirming this at the weekend in Lagos, the federal government task force committee set up by the minister to unravel the Operators behind the Illegal practices and other related matters had in their preliminary findings revealed that most of the complicit aircraft are foreign registered which have not made it totally mandatory for the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to put them under close scrutiny.
According to the findings by the committee, between 2005 and now, the number of 44 private business jets operating in the country has increased to 157 representing an increase of 357 per cent.
Part of the preliminary report declared: “We have indeed uncovered the prevalence of illegal air charter operations in the country.
Even more alarming is the fact that we have uncovered that these illegal air charter operations are not only restricted to small-time operators, but also include some high-net-worth individuals, using their private jets.”
Other criminal activities traced to the illegal private charter operators include: engaging in opaque passenger manifesting, involvement in conflicting and inadequate regulatory issues.
“Most of the complicit aircraft are foreign registered, removing them from the close scrutiny of the NCAA”.
The committee though declined revealing how much the illegal activities of the charter operators have cost the federal government but confirmed the illegality has brought huge revenue loss to the coffers of the Federal government.
The terms of reference of the task force include among others: to take inventory of all PNCF holders and recommend practical measures to be put in place to ensure they do not conduct illegal charter operations.
The committee is to also determine why the practice of illegal charter by PNCF holders persists in the country despite regulatory controls to this effect and to equally call in all professional licenses of pilots and crew in the country and determine their authenticity and validity.
The task force is to recommend to the minister extra measures to be taken by the regulatory agencies to stem the tide and recommend any appropriate sanction to be imposed by the regulatory agencies on defaulters, calling for memos from the public, the committee promised to protect the identities of whistleblowers and other groups that will provide necessary information that will aid the committee in discovering those behind the illegal charter flights.
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