NCAA Turkish Airlines compensaThe Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has mandated Turkish Airlines to pay compensation to all the passengers whose luggage were delayed in the infamous Flight TK 624 scheduled service from Istanbul to Abuja.
Sequel to that, the carrier has compensated all the passengers who were ill-treated on its service to Abuja.
The Airline under the supervision of the Consumer Protection Officers (CPO) of the regulatory authority ensured that all the passengers were paid full monetary compensation as contained in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs).
Spokesman for NCAA, Sam Adurogboye in a statement today said in addition, a cargo flight and an Airbus were arranged to freight to Abuja, Nigeria, all contentious backlog of baggage that were earlier short landed.
He disclosed that all concerned passengers have collected same as at the time of this report.
These were contained in a report of the investigation carried out by NCAA over the recent tarmac intrusion by Turkish Airlines passengers submitted to the Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),Capt. Muhtar Usman.
There were several observations and recommendations in the report. These include provision of signages informing passengers of possible penalties of unlawful acts at the airport.
Furthermore, clear cut penalties arising from unlawful acts should be displayed to serve as deterrent to would be violators.
He noted that the Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage would be deployed with Turkish Airlines asked to assist in identifying the unruly passengers for prosecution to dissuade others from carrying out similar acts subsequently.
In the course of the final phase of the investigation, salient questions will be asked concerning airport management. If established sanctions will be applied for violating access control requirements in the National Civil Aviation Security Programme (NCASP) chapters 4.5 (a),6.1.4.6.2.1 and 6.3.2.
Also, the requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations Part 17 section 17.37.1-3.
NCAA has also directed the appropriate agencies to put up appropriate control mechanism strong enough to prevent unauthorized access to restricted areas of the airports forthwith..
These recommendations and others, the NCAA said would be implemented to the letter to fore close and mitigate future occurrence.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika had penultimate week has suspended three staff of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, over what he called a security breach.
passengers protesting the misplacement of their luggages by Turkish Airlines gained access to the tarmac and allegedly stopped a Turkish Airline flight from taking off.
Sirika said “There has been an unfortunate incident where some agitated passengers of the Turkish Airlines arrived without their luggage, making them to force their way into the tarmac which is a breach of security.
“The explanation given is not satisfactory because the primary purpose of the government is to ensure safety of lives and property of its citizens.
“The cardinal objective of this administration is to secure the country and manage it and we cannot fail in aviation; we cannot fail in this important assignment at a very important point.