Admin l Sunday, February 05, 2017
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – FirstNation Airways today refuted allegations by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA that one of its pilots flew one of the fleets when it had no valid medical license.
In a statement signed by Rasheed Yusuf for FirstNation, the airline said it is not true that the affected captain had no valid medical license when he flew the plane.
“It is our position that on the day that the said flight was ramp inspected, the Captain had a valid medical license. We have also drawn NCAA’s attention to the need to address the bureaucracy associated with the general license and medical renewals process with the Authority.
“We will cooperate with NCAA in working to improve the current challenges with respect to License renewal”, FirstNation Airline said.
The airline said it is admitting no wrong doing and that it considers the level of financial fine arbitrary and at variance with the levels set out in the relevant section of Nig,.CARs.
“ The essence of Nig. CARs is corrective rather than cause Airline injury and we will be working the appeal and review of the sanction with NCAA.
“Firstnation is committed to best industry practice and respect for regulation and take the safety seriously. Our high safety standard is attested by the fact that the Airline is IATA-IOSA certified, The first Airlines to achieve IOSA certification among the ten Africa airlines selected by IATA- IATF in 2014”, the airline said.
See full text of statement
Firstnation Airways issue this Press release to clarify our position with respect to the press release by NCAA of Sunday February 5th 2017. We are surprised that the NCAA press release did not contain the fact that we immediately filed an appeal against the sanctions in accordance with the requirements of Nig. CARs 1.10 .
The fact that NCAA elected to go Public on a Sunday, without any need to rush to media and by deliberately withholding the fact that we have appealed the sanctions in accordance with the relevant regulation is in bad faith and showed the Authority’s tendency of regulation by media in a very sensitive industry.
It is our position that on the on the day that the said flight was rampinspected, the Captain had a valid medical license. We have also drawn NCAA’s attention to the need to address the bureaucracy associated with the general license and medical renewals process with the Authority . We will cooperate with NCAA in working to improve the current challenges with respect to License renewal.
The Airline admit no wrong doing and despite this position consider the level of financial fine arbitrary and at variance with the levels set out in the relevant section of Nig,.CARs The essence of Nig. CARs is corrective rather than cause Airline injury and we will be working the appeal and review of the sanction with NCAA.
Firstnation is committed to best industry practice and respect for regulation and take the safety seriously. Our high safety standard is attested by the fact that the Airline is IATA-IOSA certified, The first Airlines to achieve IOSA certification among the ten Africa airlines selected by IATA- IATF in 2014.
Signed by
Rasheed Yusuf
FIRSTNATION AIRWAYS (ss) Limited
Sunday February 5th 2017
