National Air Cargo's B747-400 Disaster.

About 2 weeks ago a National Air B747-400F (NCR 102) crash was caught on camera. Worst plane crash ever caught on tape. The flight took off from Afghanistan en-route to Dubai
The flight time to Dubai is about 2.5 hours and it was said to carry just enough fuel for the trip, the crash was said to have been caused by movement of a heavy pallet to towards the back which rendered the aircraft uncontrollable due to a shift of the airplanes's Centre of Gravity. The CG would have been very close to the aft limit. It appears that the Boeing 747-400 Freighter was carrying 5 MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles each weighing about 25,000 pounds (12,000 kg), i.e 14-tons. Mostly used by the United States Army and Marines.

Speculations was that the Boeing 747-400 may have stalled on take-off. The exact cause can only be determined once the investigators have retrieved the black box. My opinion: A classic stall on takeoff, the airplane goes up, loses airspeed, and falls off to the ground.
The fatalities reported involved 4 aircrew, 2 mechanics and a loadmaster.

Airbus Makes History: Rolls-Out Airbus A350XWB

Airbus Today rolled out the brand new state of the art A350XWB from its Hanger in Toulouse, France. Fully Painted! God don't you just love airplanes. This Airplane is a direct rival to the Boeing 787 and the B777. In-fact let the pictures and videos from Airbus Website do the talking.

Been So long!

Seems nobody missed me.. Do we even have Aviation Enthusiast in Nigeria sef! Nevertheless i they blog they go. I was in Houston a month back for my elder brothers wedding. It was fun by the way. Visited a few states but spent most of my time in the New York. I finally got a 1st hand look at Donald Trumps Private Jet. You cant miss it, Its parked right there on the tarmac at LaGuarida , New York. Saw the Singapore and Emirates A380s. Magnificent Airplanes Jor! I'm just too in Love with Aviation!

Arik Air Set to Commence Lagos, Nigeria - Sao Paulo, Brazil Routes before August

Sometime last year. Nigerian owned and based airline Arik air leased two Airbus A330-200 Aircrafts from Pembroke Group. an aircraft leasing, financing and management service company based in Dublin, Ireland.
These aircrafts were to act as supplement for the Lagos - Johannesburg route.
Arik has decided to maximize the potentials of this long haul, wide bodied jet by adding Sao Paulo, Brazil to its routes. Its been said that the Arik Air team had held talks with a Brazilian bank (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e social BNDS)  for possible funding of the acquisition of some aircraft by Brazilian plane manufacturer Embrear.

Aero Contractors to resume flight Ops.

Aerocontractors Nigeria sometime last week sacked all its workers, except its pilots and engineers. After they revolted the managements decision to sack its drivers and contract the job to an outside company. The management told all its sacked 600 employees that they would have to apply through the company website to be considered for reemployment.

The airline decided to begin scheduled operation this week but was denied operational rights by the NCAA. the Acting DG of the NCAA Mr. Nkemakolam Joyce Daniel, said that grounding the airline is necessary because at the time the airline sacked its workers some of them still had there On-Duty Card ODC which is still valid. this actually still posses a risk to the airline as some of these workers could go to any lengths to sabotage the airline. meanwhile Dana air resumed flight operations on Tuesday

Federal Government Suspends Dana Air's AOC

On the 11th, monday evening Dr Harold Demuren was sacked by the federal government stating that NCAA was the cause of the Dana crash which happened june of last year due to negligence and as well as giving the said airline back their Airline Operating Certificate AOC. Captaions of various aviation agencies and guru's in the country saw the federal governments decision to sack the former DG of NCAA as wrong.
On wednesday 13th the Federal Government appoints a former Nigerian Airways pilot and engineer Captain Fola Akinkuotu, the rector of International aviation college, Ilorin as the new DG of NCAA.
On friday or so, Dana's AOC got suspended for the second time, after Dana reported to the NCAA about a minor problem in one of there aircrafts. (I saw that coming!)
 Dana made a statement:
"We regret to announce the temporary suspension of our flight operations following a directive from the Ministry of Aviation through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Saturday, 16th March, 2013. No specific reason was given for the action. A meeting is, however, scheduled between the management of Dana Air, the Ministry of Aviation and the NCAA on Monday 18th March and we will update you as we get more information".
My Question is Why do government meddle with the business of aviation when there are to focus on developing aviation infrastructures? smh!

Aero Contractors employees on Strike.

On Wednesday the employees of Aero Contractors Nigeria carried out their threat of grounding the airline’s activities, forcing it to cancel flights and leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in all over the Nation. Its not known how long the strike would last for but the reason behind the strike was that the airline management about three weeks ago introduced a policy that outsourced most of the blue collar jobs, especially the drivers in the airline. This prompted the workers to demand the sack of the Head of Human Resources, otherwise they would go on strike, a threat the carried out yesterday. Thank God o, i was already trying to book a seat online this morning but aero site wasn't going through and there i was thinking it was network. I already started insulting my modem network. lol!

There website has been closed due to the strike action. According to aero contractors website the Head of Human Resources and Administration is Feyi Akinbile. There has been presence of  Armed policemen from the Airport Police Command on the airport premises to provide security, as they mounted a barricade at the entrance of Aero Airlines office and desk, at the airport,

Aero management in a statement apologised for the inconvenience suffered by their customers,

“our highly esteemed customers due to an abrupt industrial action by our staff which has led to grounding of all our scheduled operations. We are engaging with the Unions to find a quick and amicable resolution. Further details will be given in due course. Thank you for your understanding.”

Aero Management are currently trying to reslve issues with there staffs. Funny enough i heard that Feyi Akinbile HR/admin of Aero was HR at the time Air Nigeria had issues and decided to go under.