July 13, 2023

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the operations of all Boeing B737 aircraft of domestic carrier, Max Air.

NCAA in a letter signed by its Director of Operations, Training and Licensing, Capt. Ibrahim Bello Dambazau, on behalf of NCAA Director General, Capt. Musa Nuhu on July 12, 2023 and marked NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/363, was titled: ‘Suspension of Parts A3 and D43 of the Operations Specifications Issued to Max Air with Immediate Effect’.

According to the aviation regulator, this implies that all domestic flights of the airline will be on hold until the suspension is lifted.

“The Authority’s action is due to the several occurrences that involved your Boeing B737 aircraft as listed hereunder:

“Loss of Number 1 Main Landing Gear (MLG) wheel during the serious incident involving a Boeing 737-400 aircraft, registration marks 5N-MBD which occurred between Take-off at Yola Airport Adamawa State and on landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Nigeria on 7th May, 2023.

“Fuel Contamination of the main fuel tanks of aircraft B737-300, Registration Marks; 5N-MHM, leading to the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) shutdown on ground Yola Airport on the 7th of July, 2023.

“Aborted take-off of Boeing 737-400 aircraft, registration marks 5N-MBD, which occurred at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) due to high Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) indication on the 11th of July, 2023.

“An air return by aircraft B737-300, Registration Marks; 5N-MHM to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) due to duct overheat indication in the cockpit on the 11th of July, 2023.

“The authority has constituted a team of inspectors to conduct an audit of your organization. The result of this audit, it said, must be found satisfactory by the Authority prior to considering the restoration of the privileges of the operations Specifications to your organisation to further operate the aircraft type.”

West Africa weekly had in a report on Wednesday titled: Max Air And The Fuel Sump That Never Happened narrated what went wrong with the aircraft.

“According to this whistleblower, “multiple drums of water” (for perspective, one drum is about 208 litres) were collected from both tanks of the aircraft which had just landed.