The Sweep Continues...
Bellview Airlines
-- whose Boeing 737 went down outside Lagos in an October 23
accident that claimed all 117 people onboard -- has become the
third airline to be grounded by the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA) this month. The move comes one day after another
Bellview aircraft made an emergency landing in Accra, the capital
of Ghana.
"We have been grounded. Right now we are not operating in
compliance with the directive of the technical task force set up by
the Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade," said Bellview spokesman
Habib Mohammed, according to the BBC.
"I believe the decision is to allow for proper inspection of our
aircraft to ensure their air worthiness and guarantee aviation
safety," Mohammed added.
Other carriers that have been grounded by the NCAA are Sosoliso
-- which operated a DC-9 that went down in Port Harcourt two weeks
ago, killing all 103 onboard -- and Chanchangi.
While many have
criticized Nigeria for failing to act sooner in addressing safety
issues with the nation's fleet of aging aircraft,
the government -- on orders from Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo -- has been acting swiftly of late to show it means
business.
As was reported in Aero-News,
in addition to grounding airlines the government also grounded all
the nation's 737 airliners this past weekend -- forcing inspectors
to adhere to a 5-year-old airworthiness directive, which called for
the immediate inspection of the center spar of the horizontal
stabilizer.
Some 737s, however, were evidently still flying in spite of the
grounding -- including the Bellview jet that touched down in Accra
Monday.
"The pilot had earlier
radioed the control tower in Accra, declaring an emergency during
descent to land at Accra airport due to a hydraulic system
failure," Eric Noi of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority told
Reuters. "The aircraft landed safely... without any casualties. The
aircraft burst a tyre upon landing and was disabled for a while on
the runway and was subsequently towed to the hangar."
Bellview -- previously considered by many to be the safest
Nigerian airline -- had not had a fatal accident until the October
23 mishap. Some have said the accident may not have been an
accident at all, blaming the incident on sabotage, or even a
bomb.
Those suspicions have been fueled with the inability of
investigators to locate the aircraft's two flight data
recorders.