Air Peace Passengers Delayed after Airline’s Aircraft is Grounded

Chinedu Eze


Many passengers who were to be airlifted by Air Peace to various destinations were yesterday delayed when two aircraft owned by the airline were grounded.

The aircraft operations were suspended when in their efforts to position for boarding in the small ramp at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Lagos airport brushed each other.

According to statement from the airline, the winglet of one of the aircraft had a contact with the stabiliser of the other so they have to be grounded until they are re-certified by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to be air worthy.

Spokesman of Air Peace, Chris Iwarah, said: “We confirm that at about 6.15a.m. today (Thursday), the winglet of our B737 aircraft with registration mark 5N-BQR, which was manoeuvring within the very limited space at the ramp of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos to position for departure, had a partial contact with the stabiliser of another of our  B737 aircraft with registration mark 5N-BQP.”

Iwarah noted that although the points of contact of the two aircraft were only slightly impacted, “we took the cautious decision to declare them unserviceable to enable proper investigation of the incident, checks and repair by our Engineering and Maintenance Department in line with our high safety standards.

“There were no passengers on the two aircraft involved in the incident. We have also revised our flight schedule to cater to our esteemed guests on the 14 sectors the two aircraft were scheduled to service today,” he added.