The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation yesterday queried the country’s aviation authorities’ decision to allow Dana Airline to resume flight operations despite unresolved compensation to victims, air safety and sundry issues.
A statement issued yesterday? by the House aviation committee chairman, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, said the matter would be deliberated at plenary when federal lawmakers resume from their break next week.
Onyejeocha appealed to Nigerians for patience and restraint in view of misgivings of Nigerians over the resumption of flights by Dana airline.
Seven months after its fleet was grounded following the crash of its flight 992 on a scheduled flight from Abuja to Lagos, Dana Air, operator of the crashed plane, resumed domestic flights January 4.
Aviation authorities had temporarily grounded the airline following the crash of its plane in Iju-Ishaga, a Lagos suburb, on June 3, 2012, killing over 160 passengers and crew as well as those on the ground in the neighbourhood.
Last December, a probe report of the House Committee on Aviation into the crashed Dana aircraft recommended the sack of the Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren over “professional negligence and incompetence” resulting in the fatal Dana plane crash.
It also recommended that Dana’s current Air Operating Certificate (AOC) should be revoked because it was not issued in compliance with NCAA’s Civil Regulations Guideline 2009.