Contrary to rumours and speculations that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) was not alive to its responsibilities, the Director General Civil Aviation, Captain Musa Nuhu says when the contaminated fuel was reported in the Max Air aircraft, it was grounded immediately to ensure safety.
Speaking to reporters via Zoom yesterday evening Captain Nuhu also said Max Air may also have been a victim of the fuel supplier as the CAA has equally identified where it ( the airline) loaded fuel and Investigation is ongoing
While giving more details about the airline’s Boeing 737 suspension, Captain Nuhu said that the same day the report of the contamination reached him, they did their check in Yola and test run everything then flew from Yola to Kano without any passengers, the moment the aircraft landed in Kano it was grounded immediately pending Investigation.
According to him, the grounding was to ensure that it is safe to resume normal passenger operations because when water enters the fuel fuel tank and goes through the engines, it can do damage to the fuel control unit and that there are a lot of filters that can be spoiled.
He equally explained, that NCAA had a lot of discussion with Max Air the following day as the crew came to Abuja were they were interrogated and investigations are ongoing.
He explained, “On the issue of contaminated fuel, Max Air, we don’t know what happened but we are doing investigations on all sides. We learnt that that particular aircraft took fuel in Lagos, took fuel in Abuja and took fuel in Kano, so our people have gone to those fuel suppliers the one in Lagos, the one in Abuja and the one in Kano to investigate to see whether that is the source the water in the tank is: they are looking at their storage facilities, they are looking at their browsers and they are looking at their fueling procedures to ensure everything is working within standards. Aviation fuel is very sensitive and we cannot afford to have any problems.”
“Max Air might be a victim of the fuel supplier maybe during their storage or fueling or whatever water got into the aircraft…We will conclude the Investigation to see the source of this contamination, if it is Max Air we take the appropriate action, if it is the fueling Companies responsible action will be taken.
He said the CAA is working to ensure fuel suppliers continuously meet the requirements of the industry.
On the issue of laxity on their part, Nuhu said,”There were comments that NCAA was sleeping, as a regulator we cannot have a knee jerk reaction and come out and make statements without confirming what the issues are and what measures were put in place to ensure these problems are rectified. So we are doing quite a lot.
“I don’t have to come out and tell the whole world everything we do, we are supposed to speak when we have affirmative action of what is happening and based on the interview my people had with the staff including Director of Operations, License and Training and Director of Airworthiness and Standards we started Investigation, identified the three companies that they took fuel from that same day and Investigation has started to see if that issue of fuel contamination can be traced to the supplier.” He explained
