Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
After 2 crashes, airlines grounded
Associated Press
Published December 14, 2005
ABUJA, Nigeria - President Olusegun Obasanjo grounded two private Nigerian airlines Tuesday after plane crashes killed 224 people in seven weeks.
Blaming corruption for some of the industry's problems, Obasanjo also announced a review of all aircraft flying in Nigeria, saying experts would be brought in from the International Civil Aviation Organization.
One of the grounded carriers, Sosoliso Airlines, operated the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that crashed Saturday in the southern city of Port Harcourt, killing 107 people, most of them schoolchildren.
The second carrier grounded, Chanchangi Airlines, operated a plane that skidded off the runway in Lagos earlier this year and another craft that returned to Abuja this month after developing problems following takeoff.
Obasanjo announced the groundings after meeting with airline carriers and government regulators to discuss public concerns over Nigeria's aviation industry.
"People are asking when will this stop? How will this stop?" the president told officials in the capital. "And we have to answer these questions."
During the meeting, which was broadcast live on state television, Obasanjo read what appeared to be a February intelligence report detailing safety problems at the two grounded airlines, including landing gear trouble. It was not clear why those concerns were not acted upon earlier.
Attempts to reach officials at the two airlines, which both operate only in Nigeria, were not immediately successful.
Obasanjo on Monday ousted two senior officials in Nigeria's aviation ministry.
A passenger jet crashed Oct. 22 shortly after taking off from Lagos, killing all 117 people aboard. That plane's carrier, privately owned Bellview Airlines, was not grounded.
Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade told airline and government officials at the Abuja meeting that flight facilities in Nigeria have long been in decay.
Serbia's state-owned JAT, which in 2002 sold the DC-9 that crashed Saturday to Sosoliso, reported Monday that the aircraft was built in 1973 and did not meet European standards when it was sold because of loud noise from its two engines.
Daniel Ilabor said all three of his children - a boy and two girls - were killed. "This is the saddest day of my life."
[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:15:15]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
