David Hundeyin, a prominent Nigerian journalist, has revealed that the plane which crash landed in Ibadan yesterday is operating illegally in the country.
Hundeyin made the allegation in a social media post, adding that officials of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are aware of the plane’s illegal operations.
According to him, the aircraft has no permission to operate commercial charter flights as it is registered under a Permit for Non-Commercial Flights (PNCF).
He said such permits are given to private non-commercial aircraft, and it is cheaper and easier to obtain than a commercial Air Operator Certificate (AOC) because the NCAA rules for private aircraft operation are less stringent than those for commercial aircraft.
He added:
”Flints Aero Service, the company which operates it, is also operating multiple aircraft under PNCF permission and using them to carry out commercial charter flights. Some of these aircraft include the Hawker 800XP with the tail identifier 5N-ALG and another Hawker 800XP with the tail identifier 5N-AMK.
”PNCF holders don’t have to pay the 5% regulatory fees that AOC holders are required to, and the regulatory requirements for pilot training, ground staff training and aircraft maintenance are also less strident because PNCF aircraft are not under any circumstances supposed to carry paying passengers.
”Senior NCAA personnel take a cut of the revenues from these illegal commercial flight operations to keep this whole scam going.
”Now a sitting cabinet minister who may or may not know about all this has almost died in an accident on an illegal, unlicensed commercial flight run by his fellow “elite” who was willing to risk his life to save some money and was enabled by top ranking NCAA staff who will inevitably try to cover this up by hanging the blame entirely on Flints Aero Service.”
