By Prince Okafor

In the wake of United Nigeria Airlines, UNA, aircraft diversion to Asaba International Airport instead of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has taken decisive action by suspending the airline’s wet-leased aircraft.

The aircraft will remain suspended pending the investigation into Sunday’s incident.

The regulatory body’s decision was communicated to Osita Okonkwo, the Chief Operating Officer, through an official letter.

Vanguard gathered that the incident was directly associated with one of the wet-leased aircraft within the airline’s fleet.

Currently, the airline is operating with four in-house EMB-145LRs and a wet-leased aircraft.

After the incident sparked attention on social media, Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General of Civil Aviation, swiftly called for an emergency meeting.

An authoritative source told Vanguard that it was unanimously agreed that the airline’s explanation for the diversion was insufficient and did not align with the information obtained from Air Traffic Controllers of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, contradicting the airline’s claims of poor weather in Abuja at the time of diversion.

The source said: “NCAA has suspended all wet-leased aircraft in United Nigeria Airlines’ operations. Their explanation citing poor weather in Abuja for the diversion to Asaba was deemed unacceptable. As a result, we’ve taken the significant step of suspending all wet-leased aircraft in their fleet pending investigation.

“The crews are foreigners and lack familiarity with Nigeria, which should have been addressed by the airline. Therefore, they remain suspended until the investigation concludes.”

It would be recalled that the airline, in a statement signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Achilleus Chud-Uchegbu, claimed the incident was a result of bad weather in Abuja, so the pilot temporarily diverted the flight to Asaba.

It said the pilot was aware of the temporary diversion and had been briefed accordingly.

The statement reads: “A united Nigeria Nigeria Airlines flight, NUA 0504, operating from the MM2 in Lagos en route Abuja on Sunday, November 26, 2023, was temporarily diverted to the Asaba International Airport due to poor destination weather,” the statement reads.

“At all material time, the aircraft pilot was aware of the temporary diversion and was properly briefed. However, a wrong announcement was made by the cabin crew upon landing safely in Asaba creating confusion among the passengers.

“Meanwhile, the aircraft has landed safely in Abuja following improvement on destination weather.”