Chinedu Eze

Barely one week after renowned Fuji musician, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, popularly known as Kwam1, tried to stop Abuja-Lagos flight operated by ValuJet, similar and even more horrendous incident happened on Ibom Air’s Uyo-Lagos flight on Sunday.

The Uyo based airline explained that on Sunday, August 10, an incident involving a passenger, Ms. Comfort Emmanson, occurred.

The passenger beat up cabin crew members on arrival in Lagos after earlier violent confrontation when the passenger refused to conform to safety regulation by switching off her phone before the take-off of the flight from Uyo.

Ibom Air said Emmanson’s conduct posed a serious threat to the safety of “our crew, passengers, and aircraft”.

In a statement signed by the airline management, Ibom Air stated that shortly before take-off from Uyo, Ms. Emmanson was instructed in line with standard aviation safety procedures, to switch off her mobile phone. She bluntly refused to comply until the Pilot-in-Command made an announcement, after which a fellow passenger seated beside her took the phone and switched it off. This action prompted a verbal tirade from Ms. Emmanson, “but the situation was eventually calmed, and the flight departed as scheduled.”

The airline disclosed that upon arrival in Lagos, Ms. Emmanson waited for all other passengers to disembark and then proceeded to confront the Purser (head of cabin crew) who had earlier instructed her.

“She walked up to the unsuspecting Purser, stepped on her, forcibly tore off her wig, removed her glasses and threw it to the floor, and used her footwear to assault her. She slapped her several times and when the other cabin crew member tried to intervene, she slapped her too. She then attempted to forcibly remove a fire extinguisher to use as a weapon, an act that could have damaged and grounded the aircraft.

“By this time, the Pilot-in-Command had alerted airport security. Before security could arrive, the Purser as seen on the viral video on the internet, prevented the passenger from leaving the aircraft until security arrived. The arrival of Ibom Air Security personnel, did not deter the passenger as she attacked them as well, lashing out violently at the security personnel. She was then restrained and removed from the aircraft by force. Even after disembarking, she continued to assault Ibom Air security personnel, and even slapped the ground supervisor,” the airline stated.

All these were captured in videos that have since gone viral on social media.

According to Ibom Air, the passenger was removed from the ramp and taken into custody by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) security (AVSEC) and handed over to the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.

The airline said it has since submitted a report on the incident to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and placed a travel restriction on Ms. Emmanson, “who will no longer be permitted to fly on any of our aircraft.”

“Ibom Air reiterates its zero-tolerance policy towards any form of unruly or violent conduct that threatens the safety of passengers, crew, or equipment. Such behavior will be met with the strongest possible response, including legal action and permanent restriction from our services.

“We commend the bravery and professionalism of our crew in handling this situation under extremely challenging circumstances, as well as the swift support from airport security and the Nigeria Police. Safety remains our highest priority. We urge all passengers to comply with crew instructions at all times for the safety, security, and comfort of everyone on board,” the airline also said.

Reacting to the incident, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said that travellers cannot continue to refuse to comply with safety regulations because safety is for everyone.

He said that there should be more deterrent measure against unruly passengers to discourage such incidents that have become a habit in Nigeria among travellers, insisting that passengers cannot disobey the rules in Nigeria which they humbly obey abroad.

Achimugu said that the regulatory authority will have to device punitive measures to curtail the flagrant abuse of regulations by passenger in air travel in Nigeria.

“We cannot continue to refuse to comply with air travel regulations. Safety is for all. We need to improve the speed/quality of response to unruly passenger behaviour and other security situations and the airports. You cannot disobey rules in Nigeria that you obey abroad. Robust ramifications and enforcement actions will become the order of the day. More sensitisation and passenger responsibility education will be done, but we all have a responsibility to do what is right. All (aviation) agencies need to look inward and tighten up loose ends,” Achimugu said in a post he made on X (Twitter) concerning the incident.

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