The Nation Newspaper

Tag: flight

  • Smoke on Aero flight

    Aero Contractors yesterday reported an in-flight smoke  incident on its flight NG316 from Port-Harcout, enroute Lagos.

    In a statement, its Chief Executive Officer, Capt. Ado Sanusi, said the flight departed Port-Harcourt airport in Rivers State after it was cleared for departure at exactly 1608GMT, enroute Lagos, with 52 adults and one infant on board.

    He said: “At 1645 GMT about 75 Nautical miles to Lagos and cruising at 24,00ft, the cabin crew observed that the cabin was misty. This was reported to the Captain, who promptly announced to passengers accordingly but with firm assurances of safe landing in Lagos, stating that minutes after that announcement, normal descent was initiated into Lagos.”

    While descending, Capt. Sanusi said “a passenger went into the lavatory, after which the lavatory smoke detector alarm came on. The cabin crew again reported this development to the Captain

    They also contacted the air traffic control at exactly 1655GMT, requesting for emergency support services and proceeded to Lagos, which is the airport with the full complement of emergency support.

    The cabin crew, he stated, “ kept reassuring the passengers of their safety and also handed out wet towels to them as a precautionary measure. Aside from that, the Captain also announced to the passengers to be calm since the smoke in question did not present any irritation or discomfort.”

    The aircraft landed safely at 1703 GMT without any incident and the company engineers swung into action with the systems checks, and reported all normal, Sanusi said, adding that even though the incident has been reported to the authorities and preliminary reports suspecting that the smoke was from the baggage compartment.

    He said investigation into the incident is ongoing.

  • $380bs lost to capital flight, says Content Board

    $380bs lost to capital flight, says Content Board

    Nigeria lost about $380 billion to capital flight  before the enactment of the Nigerian Content Law, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Executive Secretary Simbi Wabote has said.

    According to Wabote, before the Law’s coming, fabrication, engineering, and procurement were done abroad, resulting  in the huge cash loss in 50 years.

    About two million jobs were lost during the period.

    According to Wabote, the narratives then were that nothing could be done in the country. Plants and modules fully fabricated offshore together with the technical, and even non-technical, manpower were ‘imported’ into the country without any structure in place to achieve knowledge transfer. The level of Nigerian Content was far less than five per cent.

    The NCDMB chief said with the Nigerian Content Act in place, the country had achieved $5 billion in-country spend as against the $10 billion target at the start of the journey in 2010. He said Nigeria currently has two world class pipe mills and five impressive pipe coating yards, adding that 36 per cent of marine vessels are now owned by Nigerians with four active dry docking facilities in Port Harcourt,  Onne, and Lagos.

    He said over 35,000 jobs had been created on the back of implementation of the Act, while over 7000 had enrolled on NOGIC JQS leading to employment. He stated that the Board is in discussion with an ICT consultant to use the JQS to capture more enrolments.

    According to him, the oil and gas industry content development Act which came into being in 2010 was intended to increase the level of participation of Nigerians and Nigerian companies in the industry. With the Act, the government had established its plan to increase indigenous participation in the industry in terms of human, material and economic resources.

    The implementation of the Act, he said, would considerably change the current business and operating structure in the nation’s oil and gas industry particularly for the international oil service companies.

    Wabote said the board had recorded significant benefits from oil and gas projects and operations for the country, adding there are more indigenous players in the Nigerian oil and gas industry now than any other time before the Act.

    He stated that the Nigerian companies were executing major engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) projects including integration of FPSO topsides in-country. Again, there is more in-country spend, adding that more Nigerians are taking over technical and senior positions in the international oil companies (IOCs), and are now in the hands of Nigerians.

    Wabote said efforts had also been made in the area of domiciliation of oil and gas equipment manufacturing, adding that a lot more would be achieved when the Board’s proposed Oil and Gas Parks come on stream in the coming year.  “Our strategic outlook is to increase Nigerian Content in-country value retention from current level to 70 per cent within the next 10 years,” he added.

    Under the Act, he said, the Board had developed capacity of local supply chain for effective and efficient service delivery to the oil and gas industry without compromising standards, to implement and enforce the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act of 2010.

    He said: “The Act had addressed key parameters required for sustainable local content practice including regulatory framework – an enabling regulatory framework backed with the appropriate legislation.

    Local content thrives where there is vigorous research and development (R&D) guideline to drive development of home-grown technology.  Countries that had witnessed appreciable local content level attributed the growth to the priority attention given to research and development.

    “Periodic gap analysis was essential to determine gaps that needed to be closed in the areas of skills, facilities and infrastructure capacity building. Structured capacity building intervention was essential to offshoot domiciliation of capabilities in-country while fiscal and monetary incentives are essential to attract new investments and keep existing businesses buoyant where necessary.

    “The local content implementation received a boost in 2016 with the launch of the Petroleum Industry Roadmap by the present government. Key focus areas of local content including infrastructure development, new gas projects, skills acquisition and security in the Niger Delta were addressed.”

    Wabote reassured commitment to re-focus and re-dedicate energy at pushing through the Nigerian content into the next level through development and transfer of technology, creation of local employment across value chain activities, reduction in capital flight, integration of host communities into the oil and gas supply chain, and sustainable economic growth through sectoral linkages. He urged all industry stakeholders to support the delivery of the seven pillars of the petroleum industry roadmap.

  • Understanding the fight/flight and tend/befriend reflexes in human relationships

    Have you ever been in a situation when someone seems very wicked and nothing seems capable of changing that person’s attitude?  Have you ever been in a situation when someone seems so easy to attack and is ever vulnerable?  There can be extreme demonstrations of the “fight or flight reflex” and the “tend and befriend reflex”.

    Human nature has characteristics but they are not fixed.  Raw nature, unschooled nature, unprincipled nature, uncivilized nature, would demonstrate pure biology, unrestrained biology.

    I ponder when I watch wildlife on the National Geographic Television channel.  Is the lion wicked in killing and devouring the gazelle so brutally and mercilessly?  Within human family and social life, when a someoneembezzles outrageousamounts of money, when someone rapes his/her spouse and beats him/her up, when someone delights in oppressing or depriving another human being, the raw self-centered reflexes involved surely can be abated or  nullified as we see in people that we regard as having normal or civilized behavior.

    Life in the jungle is full of raw reflexes.  Life in civilization is characterized by trained reflexes.

    It is difficult to try to understand or explain wildlife or raw biology, without giving it a spiritual dimension.  Was the world at some point so good, so perfect, that nothing harmed nothing?  Will the world ever become so good, so perfect, that nothing will harm nothing?  That is a query for philosophy and theology.  Here, we ask: how can we have healthy relationships, relationships that are good on either side, for either side.

    Families are ever being troubled, being destroyed, or breaking up after raw biology.

    A man may be a forever fight-or-flight person.  He would be dangerous for a person who he sees as a threat or as easy to fight and he would descend on that person as much and as far as he could.    He would of course keep away from or at least be very nice to a person he considers more powerful than himself.  A person who is a forever tend-and-befriend person would be destroyed around such a fighter. The tend-and-befriend character would have to learn to fight him or flee from him (avoid him), which ever can guarantee his or her peace and survival.

    Just as a lion does not feel wrong about brutally killing and devouring a gazelle, a human being, acting through raw nature, may not feel wrong about what he or she does to other human beings.

    Within civilization, raw nature can act under cover of duty, religion, business, etc., and people harm people.  A family or society that is riddled with crime, corruption, strife, vice, injustice, instability, confusion, and such relationship tragedies reflects entwining of raw natures.  Training people for civilized living should begin at a tender age.  Parents are primarily responsible for the way their children turn out.

    As we mature in life, we see the interplay of fight, flight, tend, and befriend in our lives in a way that reflects intellectual control as a result of experience.  Raw reflexes are more often than not incompatible with civilized living.  Intellectual influences are always necessary.  With lack of intellect, civilization breaks down, and things become raw.

    Does spiritual power affect nature?  Those who have experienced it will tell it.  The lion can eventually sit with the lamb.

    Within the family or any society, we need to watch how raw nature relates us and affects us.  We can always improve in civilized living and in healthy relationships.

     

    Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA.   For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

  • Passenger dies on Port Harcourt-Lagos flight

    Two days after a middle-aged female passenger died at the toilet of the Lagos Airport, a  female passenger on board Arik Air’s Port Harcourt-Lagos flight was yesterday confirmed dead on arrival by medical personnel at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Domestic Terminal 1, Ikeja, Lagos.

    The spokesman of Arik Air, Mr Adebanji Ola, disclosed this yesterday.

    The lady, believed to be pregnant, according to the airline, boarded the flight from Port Harcourt in company of her husband and cousin. The cause of death is yet to be ascertained.

    Meanwhile, Arik Air is increasing its frequency on the Lagos-Dakar (Senegal) route to a daily service up from six weekly flights commencing February 22, 2016.

    The new schedule will operate with four of the Lagos-Dakar flights routed via Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire instead of the previous routing via Banjul. The other three flights will continue to operate via Accra, Ghana.

  • Arik Air begins flight to Gabon

    Arik Air begins flight to Gabon

    ARIKAir has introduced Lagos to Libreville, Gabon, flight, en route Port Harcourt.

    Its maiden flight took place at the weekend from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

    Speaking at the ceremony, Arik Air’s Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Suraj Sundaram explained that there had not been any direct flight between Nigeria and Gabon for years.

    Sundaram noted that direct flight connection between the two countries was important because it would increase trade ties.

    “Nigerians from the Southeast travel to Libreville on regular basis and we also have corporations that are dominant in Nigeria, which transact business in Gabon because both are oil producing countries.

    “So, there is a lot of traffic between the two points. It is in the interest of the two countries that there should be direct flight services,” he said.

    He also explained how Arik Air intended to operate the new route, where it deployed the newest aircraft in its fleet.

    “We start every route as we have done for West Africa.

    “We started all routes with three frequencies a week, slowly expanding it based on demand, we move to five frequencies, then daily frequencies.

    “Again, based on demand, some markets are serviced two or three times a day as Lagos-Accra, Ghana.

    “So, these are plans we have laid over the past 10 years and we continue to do so with route expansion and aircraft acquisition to expand into more and more destinations globally, including the African continent,” Sundaram added.

    According to him, Arik Air has planned the flight in such a way that there is a late evening departure from Lagos, which will enable domestic flights to come into Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt to make the necessary connections.

    Gabonese Ambassador to Nigeria Mr Corentine Hervo-Akendengue hailed the airline’s decision to extend its operations to the Central African nation.

    He said Arik Air’s great vision to connect West African nations and open the route between Nigeria and Gabon would improve bilateral relations and boost commerce between the two countries.

    Nigerian Ambassador to Gabon Mr Bassey Archibong said the decision to operate to Gabon from Nigeria by Arik was what thousands of Nigerians living in the country had been yearning for.

  • Group moves to cut capital flight

    Group moves to cut capital flight

    The assembling and manufacturing of scientific instruments, laboratory equipments, chemicals, and furniture would help in reducing capital flights, and push more funds to the economy, President, Scientific Product Association of Nigeria (SPAN), Mr. Julius Famoriyo, has said.

    Speaking during group’s council meeting in Lagos, he said plans are underway to start the assembling of scientific products in the country which would reduce importation of such products and boost economic development.

    He said the association is collaborating with manufacturers of scientific products in Germany and other developed economies to make the products available to local consumers.

    Famoriyo said, such product availability, would be boosted by the upcoming trade exhibition programme holding in Germany from June 15 to 17, under the support of Spectaris, a German high-technology association and the Ministry of Trade in Germany.

    He said this year’s edition of the scientific products fair in Germany, is the biggest in the world, and would provide opportunities for the SPAN members to network, enhance members knowledge local products assembly that meets international standards.

    Famoriyo said: ‘’Through the fair, local marketers of scientific products would meet manufacturers abroad, fashion out ways of developing components, and manufacturing them in the country, which is a major  plus for SPAN’’.

    He said Spectaris, founded in 1881 is based in Berlin and has about 400 members in four branches, namely Photonics and Precision Technologies, Medical technologies, Analytical and Laboratory Technologies and Consumer optics. The SPAN belongs to the Analytical and Laboratory technologies where there are 80 companies.

    On whether government delegation from Nigeria will be at the fair, SPAN Treasurer, Mr Dapo Sonola said the recent change in government will not permit it but they are hoping that the new government would be actively involved in the scientific products industry.

  • Flight of courage

    •Are our soldiers truly afraid of taking over towns conquered  by the allied forces?

    The New York Times’ revelations through a piece titled ‘Foreign troops beg Nigerian soldiers to occupy recaptured towns,’ has further exposed our  military’s weakness. In the story, Chadian authorities were reportedly angered by “the near-total absence of cooperation from the Nigerians in a crucial regional battle.” For example, it was reported that several days after the last Boko Haram fighter had fled the captured town of Damasak, consequent upon bombardments from Chadian and Nigerien troops, Nigerian troops had shown no interest in taking over the desolate town.

    Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chadian foreign minister reportedly declared: “The Nigerian Army has not succeeded in facing Boko Haram. The occupation of these towns, this is up to Nigeria. My fondest wish is that they assume their responsibilities…Our biggest wish is that the Nigerian Army pulls itself together — that it takes responsibility in the towns. We are ready to disengage, right away.”

    Second-Lieutenant Hassan, a Chadian  army officer, puts it succinctly: “We asked them (Nigerian Army) to come, to receive this town from us, but they have not come. It is because they are afraid. We fought on the night of the 14th, and the last attack was on the 15th of March. We called them on the 16th and told them to come; they didn’t believe we were here. It is up to them (Nigeria) to hold the town, not us.” Our role is offensive. Our mission is to chase the terrorists.”

    Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information presented the Nigerian side to the story: “It is not true that our soldiers are not willing to take over such communities. There is no town that our soldiers have liberated that is not being well secured and well patrolled at the moment. We have always warned against irresponsible comments in this collaboration and we are not ready to join issues with anybody. We will do everything to sustain this collaboration.’’

    But why are Nigerian soldiers still not within that vicinity? Of course we are not unaware that not much progress was made on the insurgency until the armed forces of Niger, Chad and Cameroun came on board lately to help quell it. The reasonable mileage so far garnered, regarding the recapturing of towns hitherto occupied by members of terrorist groups in Adamawa and Yobe states, could not have been as a result of the right approach by the nation’s military authorities alone, but that of the coalition forces. With time and under the current collaborative efforts ,everything points in the direction that Borno State, the only remaining enclave of Boko Haram, would fall very soon. This is why we agree with Maj-General Olukolade that the government should do everything to sustain the on-going military collaboration with neighbouring countries.

    But by and large, it is indefensible that the nation’s soldiers still have not overcome the fears of the insurgents despite the intervention of the allied forces. What is equally undeniable is that any nation with a timid military cannot but have disaster awaiting her since the sanctity of her territorial integrity can no longer be guaranteed. This is why it is too shameful that after the liberation of some of the towns by the coalition forces, Nigerian soldiers are still afraid to take over from there even when it is certain that the coalition forces would not be here forever.

    As a responsible platform, our demand is simple: The nation’s topmost military hierarchy must not allow this insult to continue after all the huge investment the government claims to have made on the military’s training and equipment, especially in recent times.

  • Eaglets land in Kinshasa after 10-hour flight

    After clocking almost 10 hours on a flight, Nigeria’s Under 17 team, Golden Eaglets landed safely in Kinshasa, capital of Congo Democratic Republic, on Thursday, brimming with confidence ahead of their 2015 Second Round -First leg match slated to hold on Saturday in Kinshasa.

    The team  which departed it’s Calabar base for Lagos on Wednesday, flew out of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) the same night aboard Kenya Airways and made a stop-over in  Cotonou, before embarking on a five-hour nonstop journey arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 8:30 am local time (6:30am Nigerian time). They immediately boarded another two-and-a-half hour Kenya Airways flight for DR Congo and finally touched down at the N’djili Aeroport International in Kinshasa at exactly 10:10am local time-exactly the same time in Nigeria.

    After completing immigration formalities, the Golden Eaglets alongside Messer Rafiu Yusuf (NFF’s Head of technical department) Emmanuel Adesanya (NFF’s Head of Inter-clubs department) and Kut Kut Fon of the NFF’s accounts department) were received by Mr. Masiala Gaspard of the Protocol department of Federation Congolaise de Football Association (FECOFA).

    The contingent was later driven to Kampo Hotel on Avenue de la Commune and is already settling down even as officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Congo have promised to assist them for a successful outing.

    “We were here earlier with the Ambassador (His Excellency, Dr. Grant Ehiobuche) earlier  in order to welcome you but, unfortunately, you were not around then,” informed Mr. Ibrahim Miringa, Head of Chancery at the Embassy during lunch.

    “But there is nothing to worry about as we will do everything possible so that your outing would be successful here.”

    In a related development,  two stars of the 2013  Golden Eaglets’ World Cup team, goalkeeper  Dele Alampasu and midfielder  Chidiebere Nwakali, were on hand at the MMA  on Wednesday night  to wish the team  a successful outing.

  • Malaysia: Missing Flight 370 update

    The race against time continues for search crews as the black boxes from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 near the end of their one-month battery life.

    It has been one month since the plane vanished into the Indian Ocean, and in some regards, authorities know as little about the crash as they did the night of March 7. After reports that crews were hearing faint pinging sounds similar to those produced by a black box, an extensive search has been unable to locate any wreckage from the missing plane, and if the batteries die, the sounds will no longer be produced.

    If that happens, locating the plane will become a nearly impossible task.

     

  • British Airways increases African flights

    British Airways is growing its African frequencies, improving connectivity through London Heathrow and introducing its latest products.

    In West Africa, it will increase its daily services to Ghana by three a week from next month, using Boeing 767s to complement Boeing 777 flights, bringing the total number of weekly services to 10.

    From Summer 2014, a larger four-cabin Boeing 747 aircraft will replace one of the Boeing 777s on the route. It will also add a fourth weekly service to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    In East Africa, it will add an additional frequency to Uganda to offer four weekly flights. The schedule will be amended to offer better connections to other international services though Terminal 5.

    North African services have been bolstered by a fourth weekly flight to Tripoli.

    South African customers are already able to make bookings for the A380, the airline’s largest and most modern aircraft, which begins flying to Johannesburg on February 12, 2014.

    This is only the third A380 route to be announced after Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

    Services to Cape Town will double from the current daily service to a double-daily operation over the busy South African summer season. British Airways is the only airline which flies directly from Cape Town to London year round.

    It is also investing in its lounges and by the end of the year the Cape Town and Johannesburg facilities will be upgraded to reflect the customer experience at in the Terraces lounges in the award-winning Terminal 5.

    “We continue to consider the continent as an important growth market and the acquisition of bmi, our fleet renewal programme and Terminal 5 have enabled us to grow frequencies, introduce new products and provide more convenient connections for our African customers,” says Ian Petrie, Regional Manager Africa.