Dana airline has done it again

Men, women, children, old and young who left there homes with the hope of getting to Lagos never knew that the air they breathed before then was to be their last, as within a 45 minutes journey, they all died in a plane crash belonging to Dana Airline, the entire 153 passengers.

I have been filled with grief as well as anger for the continuous perishing of innocent souls in the hands of these airline companies that operate in Nigeria. This is not the first time, Dana airline in particular has been repeatedly linked with faults and attitude of traveling with malfunctioned planes overly due for maintenance. Many believe the crash was not born out of a natural cause and, based on past incidences of this sort in Nigeria, I couldn’t agree more with them. It baffles me that even after 40 minutes of the crash, not a single live plane of either NCAA, NEMA or other emergency response agency was seen in the scene, this is really disappointing.

I have always questioned the air-worthiness of some of the airlines in Nigeria, if standard process is followed, not very many of these airlines should be operating let alone be on air for whatever reason. The three basic aircraft maintenance check done on both commercial/civil aircraft are what determines the airworthiness of any aircraft.

The “A Check” is performed approximately every 500 – 800 flight hours but Dana airline which of course extends to other airlines in Nigeria, does theres approximately every 1000 – 1300 hours, and when they do, it is always done at economical levels.

The “B Check” which is performed every 4 – 6 months in airport hangers, takes these airlines more a year period to even try this maintenance check. And for the C Check, i hardly believe there are any airline in Nigeria that performs this check, instead they abandon the airplane to acquire from oversea, a poor-state aircraft already removed from operation.

If the Federal Government of Nigeria don’t wake up to her responsibility and properly monitor the air-worthiness of these airlines in Nigeria, then this might actually still remain the beginning of such incidences. May God help us.