FG Must Investigate Alleged Theft on Taxiing Aircraft

There have been reports that a taxiing private jet was burgled on the taxiway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos runway. Questions have been asked on the possibility of such incident happening.

Many officials involved in the business aviation and who are familiar with the movement of aircraft from the private jet facilities to the runway, seriously doubt that such incident could be a possibility. According to them, if it is true that incident really happened, it would be a serious breach on the security apparatus of the airport.

The Chairman of Quits Aviation Services Limited, the only authorised private jet terminal in Lagos, Sam Iwuajoku, however, confirmed the possibility of such incident as similar incidents have taken place after the initial report.

On Tuesday, a private jet carrying two Nigerian musical artists were reportedly attacked and robbed on the runway of the Lagos airport. Iwuajoku, who has access to the footage of the aircraft movement to the Evergreen Apple Nigeria (EAN) facility confirmed the possibility with subsequent thefts that have taken place on the runway and called concerned authorities to take immediate action.

THISDAY investigation showed that so many activities are taking place around the two runway of the Lagos airport where workmen, including skilled personnel and artisans are working on a new private terminal.

Iwuajoku said this is a very critical area which the federal government should focus on to make sure that the incident was investigated to make so as to curtail the reoccurrence of such incidents.

According to him, the Vista Jet aircraft had only the pilot and flight attendant on board on arrival in Lagos and it is believed that it came to Nigeria to pick up a passenger.

Iwuajoku said: “It has to be noted that every private jet that arrives Lagos must go through security checks and Immigration checks at the Quits Aviation Services Terminal, which is the only authorised terminal for business aviation where officials of Immigration, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Aviation Security of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and SSS are stationed. So on arrival every private jet must go through the facility and also before departure.

“Besides, we also monitor movement of these jets with cameras. We are the authorised service centre for five business jet manufacturers like Bombardier, Dassault, Textron Beechcraft, Embraer, Honeywell Avionics and Rockwell Collins, so we have the video movement of all jets coming into Lagos.”

THISDAY learnt from reports that FAAN has only one escort vehicle for arriving and departing aircraft for the entire airport, which handles at least 200 flights a day.

There are also indications that the illicit activities have been going on before the pilot of the private jet from Istanbul reported the theft to the control tower a fortnight ago.

Although FAAN said it has set up a committee to investigate the alleged theft but THISDAY spoke to the former Chief Security Officer of the MMIA, Festus Oluyinmika Adeboye who expressed doubt about the possibility of such theft.
“I was disturbed when I read the report because I don’t see that happening at Runway 18L where the aircraft taxied from to the EAN facility. If it is Runway 19R one could say that somebody can hide there because that area is a little bushy but recently the bush has been cut down. So it will be difficult for anybody to come to that part of the runway because Caverton Helicopters is building a facility there, so the area is busy and nobody can get there without being seen,” he said.

Adeboye recalled that about three years ago a private jet taxing to take off at the Abuja airport had its luggage compartment open, so the operatives on patrol van that escorted the aircraft on takeoff alerted control tower who communicated to the pilot to stop so that the compartment would be closed.

“So what happened may be out of negligence at the place the aircraft came from. The door might have come off, but I don’t think such a thing could happen here and besides the Runway 18L has CCTV that covered the whole place,” Adeboye said.

He also expressed worry about the report that there is only one patrol vehicle to escort planes on the runway and described such as unfortunate. He noted that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had directed that every aircraft on takeoff and landing should be escorted, adding that there should be two escort vehicles for the international terminal of the airport, one for General Aviation Terminal (GAT), one for the domestic terminal, MMA2 and one for business aviation, Quits Aviation Terminal.

The latest report on similar incident showed that the airport management, FAAN, lied that it has escort vehicles on the runway that escort aircraft on takeoff and landing, which is a breach of the directive of NCAA.
There are also fears that this may affect the goodwill of the Lagos airport, which was recently certified by NCAA in accordance to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

So the onus is on the federal government to ascertain if there was theft on the aircraft and on the pilot to prove that there was indeed a theft.