Key players worry over danger of abandoned aircraft at airports

The continuous abandonment of disused aircraft by some airlines including functional and moribund airlines has continued to generate concerns across the sector with key players describing the menace as dangerous to security around the affected airports.

The presence of the abandoned planes has become a problem for the airport authorities and users in view of the danger they pose to the safety and security of serviceable aircraft and travelers.

Speaking to Nigerian Tribune, a renowned labour leader in the sector, Comrade Olayinka Abioye, lamented how the disused aircraft now litter the airports.

Abioye called on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to urgently write the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), the umbrella body of the domestic airlines, to inform the affected airlines to evacuate the abandoned planes within a stipulated period or face legal action.

“There is no gainsaying the fact that there is usually a place called the graveyard or bone yard where disused aircraft are kept. That being so, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has the sole responsibility of storing aircrafts abandoned by airlines until such airlines need them either for outright sale to interested persons or restoration purposes. Whatever may be the situation, we are now faced with an ugly development on our hands where disused aircraft litter the field in such a disgraceful manner.

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“Given this scenario, I will suggest that FAAN writes formally to the AON leadership on this matter with the proviso that should the owner airlines fail to remove their aircraft within a particular period of time, the authority will have no other option than to seek approval of the courts for forfeiture. If such approval is secured by FAAN, it can then decide to deal with such aircraft as it seems fit.

“Luckily for us, the bone yard where these aircraft are kept is not easily accessible to the public otherwise miscreants might have taken advantage of their positioning and use them as hideouts to carry out dastardly acts within our airports. This notwithstanding, FAAN must wake up to the reality that if care is not taken, more so, given the number of idle hands roaming the streets and or the airport, former airline workers who had been laid off but still have access to the airport, nothing is impossible in the hands of this group of people.

“As of this day, I beseech the Director of Aviation Security to take a cursory look at abandoned aircrafts within our various airports and find a speedy resolution of how they can be moved out and or disposed of with aircraft owners keyed into the process otherwise the court option is desirable,” Abioye said.

In his reaction, a onetime military commandant of the Lagos airport, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), called for regulation to guide the storage of disused aircraft.

He said, “There should be regulations on how disused aircraft are expected to be kept away from operational areas especially around operating aircraft. If FAAN does not have it as its operating standards, then the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should compel FAAN to review its airports security programmes for its approval to take care of the disused aircraft within the airports. Including it in the airports security programmes will compel FAAN to take responsibility for any attacks on the airports that is traced to the abandoned aircraft.”

The image maker of FAAN, Mrs Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, had recently told Nigerian Tribune on why the authority could not just remove the abandoned aircraft because of the legal implications.

She however said FAAN had reached out to the owners of the affected planes to do the needful by ensuring the aircrafts are removed.

All efforts made in past to have the aircrafts removed were frustrated by the owners who used court injunction to prevent FAAN while other efforts made to convince them to get the aircrafts either sold as scraps or evacuated to the graveyards failed.

Some of the aircraft have become a harbour for undesirable elements and even dangerous reptiles.