Grounded Rivers Aircraft: Reps Clear Amaechi And Indict NCAA, NAMA…Say Aircraft Belongs to Rivers State
The legislators stated that Rivers State remained the real owner of the B700 Global Express Aircraft with Registration Number N565RS with a valid insurance cover that will expire in 2015.
The representatives also found there was no truth to the claim by Nigeria’s aviation agencies that the aircraft belongs to a foreign country and has no valid papers.
These were some of the conclusions contained in a report by the House committee on Justice and Aviation. The committee investigated the circumstances that led to the controversial grounding of the aircraft.
The 11-page report was jointly signed by the House Committee Chairman on Justice, Ali Ahmad, and his Aviation counterpart, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha. The House had composed the committee on April 30, 2013 to probe the grounding of the aircraft by the NCAA.
The committee sat on May 14, 2013 and took testimonies from officials of the NCAA, the Nigeria Aviation Management Authority (NAMA), Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, as well as officials of Caverton Helicopters and the Rivers State Government.
The report stated, “The level of ineptitude of NCAA is glaring in many respects: failure to appreciate from a trust agreement that an aircraft belongs to a trustor-beneficiary even after their attention is drawn to it and even as other aircraft are registered in the name of the same trustee; non-detection of an expired flight clearance 24 days after the fact and the detection was triggered by an incident rather than as a matter of course; even if the fact of falsification of documents were true.”
The report added: “It was unacceptable that NCAA did not detect this fact for over six months; indeed NCAA boasted in a letter of 29th April, 2013 that following the incident it undertook a due diligence of the status of the aircraft, but even then it failed to determine the issue of ownership and several others.
“Operational and other navigational charges were received by NAMA and FAAN and other agencies while operating the aircraft and receipts issued without raising alarm as to ownership of the aircraft by Rivers State Government.
Part of the report also stated: “Perusal of the Trust Agreement between Rivers State Trustor and Bank of Utah Trustee would have shown this fact of ownership; it is distressing that NCAA and the Ministry still fail or refuse to appreciate this simple fact; but since the authorities did not raise ownership issue with several other aircraft having the name of Bank of Utah Trustees, this allegation is in bad faith and grossly unprofessional, as the owner, Rivers State Government elected to register the aircraft in the U.S. to save money for the State and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
“Rivers State Government, through Caverton, applied to the Hon. Minister of Aviation to import and operate the aircraft in Nigeria but the application was not consummated, and so it is being operated in Nigeria as a foreign aircraft for private use.
“As from 27 August, 2012 when it applied on behalf of Rivers State Government to import the aircraft, Caverton maintained agency relationship with the Government; although that relationship was abated shortly thereafter with regard to importation of the aircraft, other aspects of the agency relationship continued especially relating to applications for flight clearance; however, all relationships between the parties was brought to an end by Caverton’s letter of denunciated to NCAA dated 26 April, 2013.
“As owner and operator of the aircraft, neither Rivers State Government nor its officials forged or falsified any document toward securing flight clearances or any other license. Should top management of Caverton deny transacting business with Rivers State Government despite its acquiescence of transactions between its member of staff and the Government, then its behavior smacks of administrative laxity or negligence; alternatively, its behavior lends credence to the assertion that it was pressured to deny the relationship.
“Caverton should be held accountable for providing information that led NCAA to ground the aircraft, contrary to provision of the law;
“Rivers State Government operated its aircraft with expired clearance between 2nd and 26th April, 2013; but several other aircraft are suspected to be in similar situation; isolation of Rivers State Government for reprimand becomes difficult to deny.
“Justifications for both the delayed start-up in Akure and the continued grounding of the aircraft in Port Harcourt amount to taking an action and later shopping for reasons: the faulty declaration of manifest and failure to file flight plan ceased to be a reason immediately the Director-General of NAMA waived the infringement and permitted the aircraft to depart Akure, otherwise continuous citing manifest and flight plan violations as additional reasons for grounding the aircraft has serious implications for the Director-General; alleged fabrication of documents by Rivers State Government was unsubstantiated.
“Having overlooked the Akure violation, the only justification known to law to warrant regulatory action against the aircraft is its operation with expired clearance between 2nd and 26th April, 2013; however, NCAA botched the opportunity to legally impose the sanction as it failed to give a written notice to Rivers State Government as required by Section 35(5) Civil Aviation Act, Cap. C13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004;
“The handling by NAMA and NCAA of this violation and their response actions further confirm the previous findings of the Joint Senate and House Committee on Aviation on the crash of Dana Aircraft that the Ministry of Aviation exerts undue interference on routine operations of these agencies.”
The report suggested that the House Committee on Aviation be mandated to scrutinize the reason for rampant foreign registration of aircraft by their owners and to further investigate all private-use aircraft operating in the country in order to sanitize their operation and ensure enforcement of the law.
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