Banky W, one of the passengers on the Arik Air Lagos to New York flight on March 31st shares his thoughts on the incident that left passengers protesting on board. Read below…
Recently, footage from a camera phone has surfaced online about the dire circumstances that passengers suffered prior to take-off, on board an Arik Air flight from Lagos to New York; I was one of the passengers. For anyone who has not seen the footage, it’s available on Youtube and various News Websites and Blogs. However, for purposes of this write-up, I will recount what happened.
The flight was scheduled to take off at about 1150pm on March 31st, 2014. Boarding was completed on time, and all the passengers settled in their seats and prepared for the flight to begin. However, there seemed to be a delay in operations because although the ground crew had exited the aircraft and the cabin doors were shut, we weren’t moving. The pilot announced that there was a small delay in the ground crew operations on the plane, and that we should be patient as the flight would depart “in a few minutes”.
The problem was, the air conditioning was not
turned on. Midnight soon passed, and there was still no A/C, neither did
it feel like we were going anywhere, anytime soon. Passengers were
vigorously fanning themselves, asking for water and ice from the Crew,
and doing whatever they could to stay cool and hydrated. The reality was
that the heat in the plane was quite frankly unbearable. It’s
hot enough in Nigeria these days, and then you couple that with a cabin
whose doors have been shut, and a bunch of people locked inside that
enclosed space… suffice it to say it escalated from bad to worse very
quickly. The Captain made
another announcement about how he’s “sorry for the delay, but it was due
to the ground operations”, and that there was only one engine on and
that was why the A/C could not be turned on yet. By now it was well past
12:30 and people were becoming extremely frustrated. Parents had begun
taking the clothes off their children, children were crying, one lady
looked like she would faint. Still, there was no further update on when
we would take off and when the A/C would come on.
Almost an hour into this debacle, many passengers
became justifiably irate. We were all drenched in sweat, burning hot,
and it was hard to breathe properly. Now,
let me interject here to say this… I believe that up till now, it was
actually Arik’s policy to not turn on the A/C on their Aircrafts until
take-off. I’m not sure why, but I’ve flown on many of their local routes
within Nigeria and 100% of the time, this is always the case. The
difference though is that usually, once boarding has been completed, it
only takes a few minutes before take-off begins, and the A/C comes on
pretty quickly, so while it’s unacceptable, it has been… tolerable. In
this case however, we had been on board for well over an hour, and now
passengers that had surged up front into my section actually said people
were fainting, and more people were going to pass out. It was
disastrous, to say the least.
Just before the passengers surged into my section
up front (I was in seat 1A), I actually saw the pilots pull the one
foreign air hostess into the cockpit and lock the door behind them. I
suspect that either the A/C may have been on in the Cockpit, or that he
was concerned for his and her safety because the shouting from the back
indicated that people were in a state of panic and riot. Either way, I
thought his actions came off as incredibly ignorant and prejudice
against the Nigerian Staff (who were doing their absolute best to try
and calm people down), and against the very Nigerian passengers who he
was employed to take care of. As the people surged up front and started
banging on the cockpit door, the Captain made yet another announcement
that people should be patient for a few more minutes, and of course it
had been well over an hour so none of the irate passengers were having
it. He also said that if people did not go back to their assigned seats,
he would have to call the police. Of course this did nothing but
provide further incentive for people to be angry, frustrated, irate… you
name it.
By this time, the entire section around my seat
was filled with screaming passengers, banging on the cockpit door and
yelling at the Nigerian Staff who were still pleading with us. I
actually feared for the safety of the Air Hostesses, and for the
equipment on the plane; the captain was not saying anything to calm
people down, and would not dare show his face, and was not hearkening to
the cries of people that he should open the cabin doors and let us out
until they were actually ready to take off.
I feared that more drastic measures were going to
be taken by the irate passengers, which is why I stood up at that point
to try and calm them down. My reasoning was that I’d been on enough
Arik flights to know that this was their policy, so I didn’t feel like
the plane was not fit to fly. I suggested that seeing as we’d already
waited that long, we give them another 5-10 minutes, because if we
disrupted the flight or caused damage, they would have to kick us off
and begin the entire process from start. Some of the passengers calmed
down after I spoke, while some were just intent on fighting or doing
something drastic to express their displeasure… (one very short angry
man actually tried to take out his anger on me, but I felt bad for him
so I didn’t let that escalate).
In any case, soon after that, the Captain
announced he was beginning take-off procedures, and I felt the A/C come
on. This further helped me make my case to the passengers, and most of
the people started going back to their seats. What further shocked me at
this point was that the Captain actually started taxiing the plane on
the runway, while people were still making their way back to their
seats. This seemed to be both dangerous AND illegal, in my opinion. To
be fair though, it did motivate people to quickly rush back to their
seats. Including our short and irate friend who at this time was
screaming at the top of his lungs, and topless. After this though, the
rest of the flight went on incident free, thank God.
Many news agencies, upon seeing me in the footage
online, have contacted me asking for details of what happened, and my
opinion on the incident. My thoughts are as follows: it was an avoidable
disaster, and one that could have ended up much worse for the staff and
equipment of Arik Air. This policy of enclosing passengers within a
cabin with no A/C is senseless; I suspect that it saves them some money
because they don’t need to rent/buy ground power units to power the
planes while they finish their operations, but it is unfair, cruel and
inhumane to the clients of the airline to subject their comfort and even
health to such conditions, all in the name of cutting costs.
A few years ago, I took this flight route on Arik
Air for the first time, primarily because I needed to be in NYC as
quickly as possible on business, and they were the only carrier that
went directly with no layovers. I was very impressed by pretty much
every aspect of the flight. It was convenient and clean; the seats were
big and comfortable; the staff was friendly and courteous; I was so
impressed that for a short while, I stopped using my usual international
Carriers. The one downside at the time, was that the food wasn’t quite
the best, and there was no frequent flier mileage program. I remember
filling out a suggestion form at the time, along with some other
passengers, and we all commented that the food could be better. Shortly
after that, I was beyond impressed to find that they had changed
their menu and food supplier, and stepped up the quality to the point
that it was as good, or better than most other carriers. It felt like
they were really responding to the needs and expectations of their
patrons, and I thought this was a great start for the Airline.
I’m a proud Nigerian… and I’m a fan of all things
good that are Nigerian. We have many issues as a country, but I’ve
always been of the opinion that we have to fix ourselves. We have to
police ourselves, and play our part in changing Nigeria and making Her
better. As such, whenever possible, I try to support Nigerian owned
businesses. My suits, for instance, are made by Mai Atafo; he has
impressed me so much that I now refuse to buy suits from anywhere else
in the world, because of the quality of his craftsmanship; and it is a
source of pride for me when I’m asked by colleagues, clients and fans
around the world where I got my suit from, and I’m able to tell them
that it was made by a Nigerian Designer.
Arik is currently our only airline that flies to
international cities like London and New York; however instead of being a
source of pride, they’ve allowed their standards to drop over time.
There are 24 seats in my section, about 10 of them are not functional
and have not been in months. The entertainment system is a joke; there
are only a handful of tv shows and films available for viewing, and they
are the same exact films/shows that were available years ago when they
started flying to NYC. They literally have not changed the movies in
YEARS. They just flat out refuse to upgrade what they have, and seem
content to let it deteriorate. There is still no frequent flier program,
even though for years they told passengers to hold on to their boarding
passes, as it would soon commence. “Soon” has taken an eternity with no
end in sight. Attention to detail is crucial, and very often, it is the
difference between greatness and mediocrity; between growth and
decline, success and failure.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out some of the
positives that the airline still has. For one, I’ve found their Nigerian
staff to be very polite, courteous and helpful. The food quality is
still great – I have no complaints on anything I’ve tasted so far, other
than the fish peppersoup – yuck! The duck however, was fantastic, as
well as everything else I’ve eaten on board. Generally speaking, their
cleanliness standards have not dropped either, thank God. And lastly,
the direct flight to NYC remains as convenient as it gets for someone
like me who sometimes needs to save time spent in European layovers.
I’ve witnessed them make positive changes before
due to the suggestion surveys passengers filled out; my hope, in writing
this, is that they do the same again, fix the issues and give us a
Nigerian Airline that will be a source of pride, not pain.
- B.W.
PS: Not everyone needs to be in NYC like myself; I
suggest to the powers that be, to try and partner with an American
carrier, so that once you touch down in NY, you can easily transition to
a local flight to take you to your final destination.
PPS: I apologize for the extremely long article. I have even more to say but this will have to do.
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