-How Dana Airlines Ignored Warnings
A GROUP of whistle blowers within Dana Airlines Nigeria Limited and the Federal Civil Aviation Authority, FAAN, have started speaking up on the greed and official corruption that resulted in over a 153 fatalities during Sunday’s crash in Iju-Ishaga suburb of Agege in Lagos.
The revelations by the whistle blowers is being backed-up by sharpedgenews.com undercover investigators that both Dana Airlines and FAAN often put revenue and profit over traveler’s safety and adherence to regulatory standards.
Nigeria’s aviation minister Stella Odua is being fingered as the square peg in a round hole who, in spite of crocodile tears shed to the media, was said to have done very little to maintain worthy standards as head of the Nigerian aviation business. According to sources, Ms. Odua had no antecedents in the aviation industry to justify her choice as the helmsperson, other than political ties to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sources said that the greed factor prevalent under Ms. Odua’s watch necessitated the engagement of criminal characters as consultants who do very little to guarantee the safety of lives in Nigeria’s airspace. A May 26 2012 evening incident involving sharpedgenews.com personnel is a case in point, as fraudsters working with the approval of the minister and FAAN officials clamped the tires of vehicles that had transported some disabled passengers for a trip to the United States. They were ticketed to the tune of 500 each and fake receipts were issued for the ‘fines’.
Those who witnessed the fraudulent seizure of vehicles at the Lagos Airport on the said night alleged that the corrupt officials of the airlines and FAAN pay little attention to operational standards even as they fleece close to N100 million off unsuspecting Nigerians on weekly basis.
The ill-fated Dana Airlines-owned MacDonald Douglas plane was adjudged unfit for flight. A few weeks back, the same plane was grounded for six days. Inside sources at Dana said that the crew of the airplane was replaced in the face of obvious distress. The plane had developed major engine problems on a recent trip to Uyo. A hurried fix was carried out before it was sent on a murderous trip to Abuja and then from Abuja to Lagos. The aircraft’s last trip was Sunday’s ill-fated trip to Lagos.
The same source explained that the tragedy of Sunday could have been averted if the advice of the field officer on duty had been heeded. The operational officer on duty was allegedly overruled by the management of Dana on Sunday after calling for a routine check and maintenance regime that should have lasted for at least six hours.
The management of Dana is denying the disclosure and strongly working on the novel greed motivations that often make Nigerians sweep serious issues of life and death under the carpet. The airline is not only promising to pay required compensations to the families of the victims, but is working on fishing out the whistleblower employees by staging a meeting where employees are required to make verbal contributions in an attempt to identify the employee who anonymously tipped off the public on its poor operational standards.
In the meantime, Nigerians continue to learn of friends and associates who fell victim to Sunday’s disaster. A 3-generation household of a husband, wife and 2 children, including the maternal grandmother, who had traveled from the United States for another family-friend’s wedding in Nigeria perished in the crash.
At 6 foreigners died in the crash, including 4 Chinese citizens, an American pilot and an India co-pilot.