Conveyor Belt Hits Air Peace Aircraft, Disrupts Flight Operations

A conveyor belt has hit an aircraft belonging to Air Peace, thereby disrupting the airline’s Lagos–Accra flight.

The incident occurred on Friday after passengers had already boarded the aircraft.

The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Michael Achimugu, confirmed the incident in a post via X on Friday.

He said the collision caused damage to the aircraft’s engine cover.

“Passengers were already boarded when a ground handler’s conveyor belt hit the aircraft, causing damage to the engine cover. Passengers had to be deboarded,” Achimugu said.

According to Achimugu, the affected aircraft was scheduled to operate nine flight sectors, noting that all passengers booked on its subsequent operations would experience disruptions.

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“The airline will face backlash, refund issues, compensation, etc, for damage that was not its fault, and it would spend large sums of foreign currency to fix,” he said.

“The other time, it was a bird strike that cost (by the airline’s admission), over three million dollars to fix. It took an entire month for the airline manufacturer to send them the replacement for the engine cowling dent.

“Today’s aircraft was one of the brand new E2’s, and it was fully booked until January 15th, 2026. Now, all innocent passengers booked for its operations will experience one delay or cancellation.

“But airlines will not throw other service providers under the bus. They will simply announce “technical/operational reasons” and then they would bear, not just the anger of justifiably aggravated passengers, but the consequences per Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.”

He added that, “Air Peace has suffered a lot of these technical issues through no fault of theirs.”

The NCAA spokesman emphasized the need to start naming and shaming poorly trained ground handling personnel whose inefficiency costs the airlines great reputational, financial, and technical damage.

He noted that the Authority is also considering strengthening regulations that would impose heavier sanctions on service providers responsible for such incidents.

“Airlines should not be held responsible for situations like this, and passengers should be informed, most honestly, about the reasons for disruptions caused by these unfortunate scenarios,” Achimugu said.

“I do hope that there is enough insurance to cover the cost of losses like this one. In advance, I call for the understanding of passengers who were scheduled to fly this aircraft. I have asked about standby aircraft.

“The airline has two (which is commendable), but those two have been deployed to cover two other similar situations. In any case, even if they were available, their sitting capacities are less than the damaged E2. These are some of the behind-the-scene situations that make airlines seem culpable.”

Achimugu maintained that there was a need for better public education and clearer disclosure of facts to prevent the aviation industry from appearing secretive.