- That is the story at Bauchi Airport where passengers disembarked via a ladder
As if Nigeria’s aviation had not attracted enough international notice of the wrong kind in the preceding months, it ended the year on a surpassing note when 34 passengers arriving at Bauchi airport had to disembark from a Boeing 737 belonging to Aero Contractors using a ladder.
Out–bound passengers had to embark on the same aircraft using the same ladder.
According to the flight operators, the airstair at the airport had malfunctioned before the aircraft landed, and was undergoing repairs. The passengers had grown restive and had insisted on disembarking by any other means, apparently including a ladder.
The operators said the passengers were warned that disembarkation by ladder was dangerous and was expressly prohibited by flight regulations. Only when the passengers could not be dissuaded was a ladder set in place, their spokesperson said.
This attempt to shift the blame on the victims of a failed system will not wash.
In the claustrophobic cabin of a grounded plane, with no prospect of an airstair rolling into place anytime soon, to blame the passengers for seeking other means of exit would amount to compounding the injury even if there was not the added human-interest angle of the bride-groom who, with his retinue, was in danger of not showing up for his wedding, absent extraordinary measures.
Aero Contractor’s disingenuousness also raises a number of questions. When did the airstair malfunction, and when were the aviation authorities and Aero Contractors apprised of that fact? What steps were taken subsequently to fix it?
Besides, was a ladder the only alternative? What of the escape slide that should have been deployed to enable a safe evacuation, in what should have been regarded as an emergency?
There is an implicit contract whenever a passenger boards a passenger aircraft. In return for the ticket fee, the airline undertakes to provide a seat and to convey the passenger to a destination in safety, if not always in reasonable comfort. This obligation does not end until the passenger has disembarked.
Aero Contractors was remiss in meeting this obligation. But the principal culprit is without question the aviation and airport management authorities with responsibility for passenger safety.
The Bauchi incident must be seen, again, as a failure of regulation and a failure of oversight.
An airport does not become “international” just because it is thus designated. To be truly international, it must at all times meet all the global standards for such a facility. It must not in the slightest degree compromise the safety of passengers and other patrons. It must have the capacity to cater to a large number of flights arriving at short intervals, and the capacity to respond to emergencies with dispatch and professionalism.
Bauchi Airport does not fit the description. Neither do dozens of Nigerian airports proudly answering to the label “international.” If the airlines that ply them are not skimping on maintenance, they are operating with scant regard to time schedules, and generally treating passengers with disdain, theirs being a sellers’ market.
One of them was recently awarded the dubious distinction of being the “most dangerous” airport in the world, with the others just a shade better.
The regulatory and oversight authorities must take their responsibilities much more seriously. They must place passenger safety above all other considerations. Probing the Bauchi incident would be a good starting point.
Aggrieved passengers also have a duty to help enforce the rules by demanding compensation from airline operators for injuries or inconveniences, or seeking legal redress.
