Stop fumigation with passengers on board, Fani - Kayode warns airlines
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, minister of state for aviation Services, has warned foreign airlines operating in the country to stop spraying or fumigating any aircraft with passengers on board.
Fani-Kayode, who gave the warning yesterday in Abuja when he received officials of foreign airlines, insisted that it was an insult to spray the aircraft when passengers had boarded.
“Failure to heed this warning would attract sanctions,’’ Fani-Kayode said.
Mr Aderemi Ajidahun, special adviser to the minister of state (air transportation), who stood in for him, said that the ministry had received unsavoury reports from the Nigerian flying public on such treatment in the hands of foreign airlines.
He described the recent development as “not dignifying’, saying: “There is no reason for foreign airlines to spray the aircraft when passengers have taken their seats’’.
Fani-Kayode said that Nigerians were not animals to be sprayed with chemicals by any person or organisation.
He said that as part of efforts by the federal government to improve the safety and security of passengers, President Olusegun Obasanjo had mandated all airlines to fix the Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS) on their aircraft by April 2007.
The GPWS is a safety equipment on a modern aircraft.
Fani-Kayode said: “This presidential directive equally applies to operators of older aircraft in Nigeria .’’
“The introduction of this modern safety devise has greatly reduced the incidence of air mishaps in the United States of America by 90 per cent,’’ he added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the minister had warned foreign airlines to desist from discourteous and shabby treatment meted out to Nigerians on board their aircraft.