Chanchangi Grounded - Again

[etienne t boy]

According to a report in the Guardian on Friday, Chanchangi Airlines has been grounded again on the orders of the NCAA.

This comes after another technical problem as reported by This Day newspaper:

A Boeing 727 owned by Chanchangi Airlines yesterday was in flames as it landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. The aircraft which arrived from Kaduna was scheduled to depart for Lagos.
Although the airline’s spokesperson, Olu Balogun, explained that the fire incident was first noticed in the cockpit, and not in the engine as believed, he added that the lagos-bound passengers were transferred to another aircraft which later took them to their destination. Balogun also said that the problem has been rectified.
The incident comes a few weeks after an aircraft belonging to Chanchangi Airlines made a return to Lagos after a hydraulic leakage was discovered shortly before touch down in Abuja. That incident occurred not too long after another Chanchangi-owned aircraft on its way to Kaduna from Lagos returned to base because one of its three engines broke down 20 minutes after take-off. One of the blades of the engine reportedly fell off.
A similar decision to return to base nearly caused a brawl between Chanchangi’s crew and two passengers in a flight to Lagos from Abuja.
The Chanchangi aircraft was already airborne when the pilot realized that its cargo hold door was open and had to return to base to close it. A passenger in the aircraft said there was a loud bang when the plane eventually landed as the cargo door hit the tarmac.
Attempt by two passengers to disembark from the plane was flatly refused by the crew.

[dynamicd]

The article you quoted does not state that the airline has been grounded by the NCAA,in any case I flew Aero from ABV-LOS this afternoon and saw NCH aircrafts operating.And living in Kaduna city one hears the sounds of chachangi airplanes operating into the Kaduna NAF base due to the closure of the Kaduna airport.So I dont think they have been grounded.KAD-ABV sounds like a strange routing for NCH was it a charter OPS perhaps or a new routing.:confused:

[etienne t boy]

The news on their grounding came in a post from Flying Touareg on the DFO at Virgin Gone thread in a quote from the Guardian newspaper:

THE Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday grounded the operations of Chanchangi Airlines following safety problem.
The grounding of the operations of the carrier came on the heels of an incident involving the airline when one of the engines of a B727 belonging to it caught fire mid-air, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja

[BALEWA]

The news on their grounding came in a post from Flying Touareg on the DFO at Virgin Gone thread in a quote from the Guardian newspaper:

Boy oh boy :ugh:

[AVSEC]

Real pity about Chaichangi.
This is their third near miss so far.
I understand that their B727 was grounded by the NCAA,not their entire fleet.
1.cargo hold door is left open and aircraft takes off only to make tech return about ten minutes later.
2.smoke comes out of cockpit during flight due to technical problems,and passengers claim to have seen flames comming from one of the engines.
3.physical altercation with paxs trying to leave aircraft by the airline crew.

Chaichangi invest in proper Aviation security so that your aircraft is kept under surveilance during turn arounds.
I fear that something will go wrong soon,and fatalities recorded before the management actually takes these incidents seriousely.

[surely not]

Errrr how is aviation security going to help in the 3 instances quoted?

1.cargo hold door is left open and aircraft takes off only to make tech return about ten minutes later.
2.smoke comes out of cockpit during flight due to technical problems,and passengers claim to have seen flames comming from one of the engines.
3.physical altercation with paxs trying to leave aircraft by the airline crew.

In situation 1 I suggest a better walk round check by the ground engineers seeing the flight off would be more useful than a non qualified security guard. Even better would be for the loading staff to do their job properly!

In situation 2 it was during the flight...............so where is the security guard sitting? On the wing? well you'd need two then, one for each wing :}

In situation 3 there is a possibility that having a security guard at the aircaft might have been useful. It isn't clear at what stage in the proceedings the pax tried to leave the aircraft.