NCAA begins investigation of 3 oil companies over Max Air fuel incident
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has commenced investigation into the activities of three oil companies over the incident where contaminated fuel was found in one of the aircraft belonging to Max Air.
In a Zoom meeting with aviation correspondents on Thursday night, the Director General of the agency, Captain Musa Nuhu, disclosed that three aviation fuel suppliers have been identified in the course of its investigation into the incident which happened few days ago.
The agency shut down Max Air’s B737 operations following a number of incidents it recorded, with the most recent being the contamination of the main fuel tanks of aircraft B737-300, with registration Marks; 5N-MHM, leading to the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) shutdown on ground at Yola Airport on July 7, 2023.
Nuhu said that the aircraft involved was grounded immediately, while the crew was interrogated the next day.
He revealed that two fuel companies were recently banned from supplying fuel to aircraft in Abuja over contamination and non-compliance with standards, while insisting that it was also the responsibly of the airline and the captain in command to check the fuel before taking off from a particular airport.
“The operations of Max Air B737 fleet has been suspended for a series of issues they’ve had over a couple of times. We did have a meeting with Max Air about a month ago after the landing incident in Abuja, a lot of issues were trashed out. As you are all aware, several days ago, there was a video that went viral with regards to the issue they had on ground in Yola where supposedly, drops of water was removed from the aircraft. Certainly, during aircraft fuelling, they had water in it but we do not know the amount because we were not there. That same day, when the report reached me, I called for a Zoom meeting with my folks, we spoke and that particular aircraft was grounded.
“The grounding was to ensure it is safe to resume normal passenger operations because when fuel enters the tanks, it goes through the engines, it can do damage to the fuel controlling it, there are a lot of things that can be spoilt, so we have to be sure they take the appropriate maintenance procedure to ensure continued airworthiness of the aircraft. The second aircraft had landing issues. It was supposedly fixed by Aero contractors in Lagos.
“We have started investigation and we have identified three aviation fuel companies they took fuel from that day. We will mete out sanctions where necessary. We are going to hold meeting with the regulatory commission in other to ensure compliance with standards.
