Sokoto Passengers Hijacked Four Of Our Aircrafts Yesterday – Arik Pilot Writes

It is no longer news what Arik Air has been king and winner when it comes to flight delays in Nigeria. Yesterday the airline met it’s waterloo as frustrated passengers could no longer take the nonchalant as it will seem the airline went on strike or the Aviation Fuel used in flying their planes wasn’t sufficient over the hazard caused in airports nationwide

Nigerians who witnessed the face-off took to social media and prominent among those that tweeted about the incident, is Egghead Odewale, an influential member of Nigeria’s Opposition party, All Progressives Congress.
Egghead from his tweets, was on a flight from Lagos to Abuja and ended up spending several hours at the airport.

But the story doesn’t end there as you will see, Arik in it’s defence just sent a mail claiming its planes where hijacked.. See tweets and story by an anonymous pilot below…

Photo shows angry passenger protesting on the run way and Arik claims its planes were hijacked, if that was the case wouldn’t it amount to a terrorists threats? To think that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authorities looks on while airlines like Arik threat customers the way they like is disturbing. Why always Arik?

Getting home at 2.30am sharp (morning after) for a 7pm flight that should not have lasted longer than an hour. #ArikFlightDelays

— Egghead Odewale (@eggheader) March 2, 2015

Passengers knackered but anxious after #Arik flight delayed for 6hrs. #ArikFlightDelays #LagosAirport pic.twitter.com/RVDO0TzDpL

— Egghead Odewale (@eggheader) March 1, 2015

HAPPENING whilst y’all got intimate with #GEJ | Man stood in way of taxiing #Arik plane @ Abuja airport pic.twitter.com/SOLpW8bIwz h/t @iamcedar

— Egghead Odewale (@eggheader) March 1, 2015

Airport police on hand to calm frayed nerves. Nerves duly calmed as fights have been subdued to shouts! #ArikFlightDelays

— Egghead Odewale (@eggheader) March 1, 2015

Read the message by the Arik Pilot below..

Yesterday in Abuja, arik air was to operate a scheduled flight from Abuja to Sokoto at 8am. But the flight was canceled. Passengers got angry and anxious to know when they’ll leave Abuja.

Then a bombardier Q400 aircraft was provided to fly them to Sokoto by 1pm. As they boarded, the pilot announced the plane had a snag so he disembarked the Sokoto passengers. Angry passengers got haywire on the ramp where aircraft were parked and hijacked 3 Arik aircraft from taking off. I was to fly to Benin from Abuja 3pm flight.

Angry Passengers sat on the foot of the Aircraft blocking Benin passenger from boarding.

Pilots got angry and called it hijacked in an international airport. Another sister aircraft tried to start its engines, and after starting, angry Sokoto passengers stood in front of the aircraft which had started its engines and was about taxiing for take off. We were delayed for over 2hrs.

I finally departed benin 5.15pm instead of 3pm. See pic in attachments.

Pilot; First Officer
Arik Air