Imported User:
As indigenous airlines come under fire due to the aircraft accident involving Dana Air aircraft in Lagos recently, Arik Air, one the domestic airlines said that its fleets are well maintained by globally recorgnised maintenance organistions, even as the airline has passed the second International Air Transport Association(IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).
IOSA is the benchmark for global safety management in airlines and all IATA members are registered and must remain registered in order to maintain IATA membership.
The airline explained that with GPS, the aircraft in its fleet can land at zero visibility at any airport in the country.
Speaking to journalists during a facility tour of the airline’s Maintenance Hangar at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, the Senior Vice President, Operations, Arik Air, Mr. Rob Thomas, disclosed that the airline passed the second IOSA programme and that it was done three weeks ago.
This is coming just as experts are asking the Federal Government to make it compulsory for domestic airlines to belong to IATA, which would make the airlines go through IOSA, following the Dana MD 83 aircraft crash which occurred on June 3, 2012, killing 153 passengers, six crew and six persons on the ground.
Presently, two domestic airlines; Arik Air and Air Nigeria are the only airlines on IOSA register.
At the airline Operational Control Centre (OCC), where all its flights are tracked, the senior vice president operations, disclosed that airlines’ aircraft are fitted with modern Global Positioning System (GPS), equipment that makes the aircraft to land with recourse to instrument landing system at airports.
