Arik Air Blames Instrument Landing System For Flight Delays

Arik Air yesterday blamed the Instrument Landing System, ILS, at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja and technical problems on their plane already boarded by passengers at Port-Harcourt International Airport for the delay and eventual cancellation of their Abuja bound flight.

The airline yesterday at the Port Harcourt airport kept its passengers on board stranded before announcing cancellation of the flight.

The Arik plane whose number could not be ascertained as at press time was scheduled to depart Port Harcourt as last flight of the day on Friday, 8th July 2016.

Reacting to the incidence, the Communication Manager, Arik Air, Mr Ola Adebanji said

“The flight was initially delayed out of Abuja because of the faulty ILS at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport which led to total blackout on the runway for several hours on Friday evening. This led to the grounding of outbound flights while inbound flights could not land. “

“Thus, the flight arrived Port Harcourt at about 10.30pm, later than scheduled. Then after boarding the Abuja bound passengers, the aircraft had technical issues and all efforts by the Captain to reset the engine was futile. The aircraft was declared AOG and the flight rescheduled for Saturday morning .”

“However, some of the passengers refused to leave the aircraft insisting on being flown to Abuja that night even after they were briefed about the situation