Posted by By John Ighodaro on
MINISTER of Aviation, Mallam Issa Yuguda, declared yesterday that anyone found culpable in the Air-France incident in Port Harcourt would be sanctioned. The minister also ordered airport security men to shoot on sight any cow or animal found wandering around the Port Harcourt International Airport tarmac.
PORT HARCOURT - MINISTER of Aviation, Mallam Issa Yuguda, declared yesterday that anyone found culpable in the Air-France incident in Port Harcourt would be sanctioned. The minister also ordered airport security men to shoot on sight any cow or animal found wandering around the Port Harcourt International Airport tarmac.
He spoke when he visited the airport to assess the extent of damage caused by the incident between the Air-France Airbus A330 and a herd of about 50 cows which led to the death of seven cows.
Briefing newsmen after inspecting the aircraft, the point of impact and having consulted with airport officials, the Aviation Minister said he came to 'gather first hand information about the incident that happened yesterday (Wednesday). We all know there was no accident but an incident."
Describing the incident, however, as 'near-accident," he said: 'It was caused as a result of having some stray animals, to be precise, cows that found their way into the runway at about 4.30 a.m. yesterday (Wednesday)., which is a very unusual time for cows particularly to be moving around. God has saved the situation and with the professionalism, expertise and the experience of the pilot he was able to control the aircraft incident even without the passengers knowing that something happened, from what was reported to me."
Vanguard gathered that the pilot of the aircraft, Mr. Cambus Patrick, has 20 years experience of flying. And by his own admission, he had flown 12,000 hours so far in his career.
While commending the pilot, the Aviation minster said: 'We are grateful to God that we had somebody like that in the cockpit. Also with the guidance of the Almighty God everything came under control."
Describing the Port Harcourt International Airport as a good airport, the minister added that the airport needed a lot of improvement.
His words: 'The International Airport Port Harcourt here, as you are all aware, is a very good airport but needs improvement. And one of the major improvements that this airport requires apart from having a second runway, most importantly, in compliance with what international standard is that the parameter fencing must be there. In fact, it is a requirement that even before an airport is constructed, the whole place has been secured.
'Government is making spirited efforts to fence all our airports so that we can comply with the deadline of December 2006 and Port Harcourt Airport happens to be one of our topmost priority airports because the fence has gone down, everywhere is porous unlike other airports that we have in Kano, Lagos and other places. We have to find means of constructing the parameter fencing before the December 2006 deadline.
'As an interim measure in Port Harcourt, we have alerted the state government on the development. We have also alerted the local government area where this airport is located in. We have also got in touch with community leaders and particularly and most importantly the head of the cattle rearers association. From what I gathered, there was a recent meeting between the management of the airport and the cattle rearers and the cattle rearers had given a pledge that they would control their cattle and would no longer allow them to wander into the runway of the airport.
'But that assurance appeared to have been betrayed and I am afraid I have given orders that any cow, any animal that is seen on the runway should be shot. I have also directed that the hourly inspection of the runway by airport security be reduced to 30 minutes and by the time a night flight is supposed to be touching down, five minutes before the time, security officials should put their eyes on the tarmac. I believe with all these we will be able to manage the situation pending the construction of the parameter fence.
'Once we conclude our preliminary investigations, any person who has been very negligent in his or her duty in any of the formations at the airport would be duly sanctioned. And this is not something that will come from us. We are not here to please people, we are here to make people work. Somebody that refuses to do his job diligently we shall not continue retaining him for him to put the lives of people at risk."
Asked if he was found culpable, would he be sanctioned, he answered in the affirmative.