Posted by Sade Williams
As the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) extends its searchlight in the course of investigating the source of jet fuel contamination, it has discovered that some unapproved aviation fuel marketers found their ways into the airports thereby supplying the commodity to unsuspecting airlines.
Director General, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, in a Zoom meeting with aviation correspondents on Thursday, said it was revealed during a meeting with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission/Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) that some fuel suppliers were operating at Nigeria’s airports illegally.
He said the Authority was furnished with a list of approved aviation fuel companies by the DPR but discovered that some suppliers currently operating at the airports were not on the list.
He however said the NCAA plans to intimate the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about the development with a viw to barring the illegal operators.
“Investigation is ongoing, we are doing this in collaboration with the DPR and we have gotten the list of all companies approved by the DPR , we found out that some were not approved, we will write FAAN about this to ensure they withdraw their services untill they meet all requirements.
“Any Jet A1 supplier must be approved because it needs a lot of standards. Although, there was a gap between the DPR and NCAA but that has been closed. The issue of fuel contamination is not acceptable, no international airline has also reported fuel contamination but it is an alarming tbing that needs to be looked into. We have set up a committee comprising representatives of relevant agencies to look at the entire syestem and make recommendations . But it is still the responsibility of the airline, the pilot to check his fuel”, he said.
Speaking on the Jabiru Aircraft Crash, Nuhu expressed displeasure over unprofessional comments about the accident, sayiing the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has the capability to investigate the cause of the crash.
“I cannot comment on the cause. It is very unfortunate and it was just by the grace of God that it wasn’t disastrous. I have full confidence in the ability of the NSIB, people should avoid mere speculation, NSIB will release the report very shortly but what I have found disappointing is the comments against the. Director, Airworthiness Services. The. Director of Airworthiness is very competent and before he was seconded to the NCAA, he had a life, he does not own the aircraft, he submited letters of resignations from all the companies he worked for, he is even the one that has identified some of these illegal fuel companies, despite unnessary dragging of his name”, Nuhu lamented.
On the forthcoming audit, Nuhu disclosed that the Authority is working 24 hours to close some gaps identified at some airports, revealing that the audit would take place from August 30 to September 11, 2023.
