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 11:50pm on March 31, 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 per cent 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 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
topless irate friend who at this time was screaming at the top of his
lungs. 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 pepper soup – 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….
No comments:
Post a Comment