Airline explains cause of incident involving two planes at Nigeria airport

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's largest domestic airline, Arik Air, has blamed ''incorrect apron markings'' for the weekend incident at the Jos Airport in northern Nigeria, in which one of its planes 'brushed' a packed Nigerian Air Force (NAF) C-130 transport plane, causing substantial damage to both planes

“The markings on the tarmac of the Jos Airport are old markings which did not take into cognisance the use of bigger aircraft like Boeing 737-700 or 737-800 which we have in our fleet and are capable of misleading pilots during taxing,'' the local media Monday quoted Arik Air Managing Director Chris Ndulue as saying.

''We hope this incident will make FAAN (Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria) to re-do those markings,” he said.

On Sunday, the airline sent a team to the airport to assess the damage done to its plane in the incident.

According to the NAF, ''the incident happened at about 1345hrs today (Saturday) when the Arik aircraft was taxiing at the airport tarmac in preparation for take-off (to Lagos). The tank 1 wing tip of the NAF C-130 was damaged while the wing of the Arik aircraft was dismembered and hung on the NAF aircraft.

“There was no casualty recorded during the incident. However, the two aircraft had to abort their missions.''
-0- PANA SEG 16July2012