House Investigates Alleged Negligence of Max Air, Aero Contractors to Safety Precautions

Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Aviation to investigate the Max Air and Aero Contractors over alleged engine failure and bird strikes of the two flights that sought to depart Kano and Port Harcourt Airports respectively to Abuja yesterday.

The committee was also mandated to investigate safety precautionary measures that nearly led to air accidents in order to avoid further loss of lives and destruction of properties.

The resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance, which was sponsored by Hon. Bala Sank Umar, at the plenary yesterday.

Umar noted that on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 140 air passengers that included the Emir of Kano and 90 others flying with both Max Air and Aero Contractors aircrafts respectively escaped fatal accidents and possible deaths as they separately departed Kano and Port Harcourt airports for Abuja. He said that the Max Air plane with registration number VM1645, which was scheduled for takeoff by 1.30 p.m. had delayed for about 30 minutes before departing only to escape air crash.

Similarly, the Aero Contractors’ Boeing 737-500 with the registration number 5N-BKR encountered bird strike 10 minutes upon take-off and eventually returned back to base.

Umar expressed concerns that there are allegations of negligence on the part of the airliners in applying safety precautions leading to these accident threats.

He said: ‘’Aware that in view of several issues of conflict between birds and aircrafts causing accidents and deaths, best practices ensure the use of Bird Strike Avoidance Radars to avoid such unfortunate situations. Disturbed that bird strikes is increasingly becoming recurring incidents in our airports with reports suggesting more of these cases prevalent at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.’’