The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the Air Operators Certificate of Dana Air.
This came barely 24 hours after Dana Air plane coming from Abuja landed at the Lagos airport runway and veered off into a nearby field.
Dana Air plane with registration number 5N BKI, had 83 passengers onboard. However, all the passengers and crew members disembarked unhurt.
Emergency responders and regulatory agencies immediately rose to the occasion and opened an investigation to unravel the real course of the incident.
While the outcome of the investigation by the Nigerian Safety and Investigation Bureau is being awaited, NCAA said it was important to audit the operations of the carrier.
NCAA in a letter with the ref no: NCAA/DGCA/DANA/1/24/001, and signed by the Acting Director NCAA, Chris Najomo, said the AOC of the airline had been suspended.
While awaiting the investigation report from the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau, NCAA said it had initiated an in-house compliance assessment of the occurrence taking into account Dana’s track records in related occurrences.
The NCAA letter read in part, “As a precautionary step, and in accordance with Sec 31 (7) of the Civil Aviation Act 2022, the Authority has imposed a suspension on your Air Operator Certificate (AOC) with effect from 24th April, 2024 at 23:59 to allow for a thorough safety and economic audit.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had expressed displeasure with the incident involving a Dana aircraft.
This was contained in a letter by the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, and addressed to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority.
The letter which was signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr. Emmanuel Meribole, was obtained by the newsmen on Wednesday.
In the letter to NCAA, the permanent secretary said the incident had raised serious concerns regarding both the safety and financial viability of Dana operations.