For the third time in just over a year, troubled flyer Dana Air came under the hammer last night as its licence was suspended by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The action came barely 24 hours after the authority grounded the operations of Associated Airlines, whose Embraer 120 plane crashed Thursday shortly after take-off from the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, killing i4 of the 20 people on board.

Panic further spread on Friday when a Kabo Airlines’ Boeing 747 plane carrying 512 pilgrims had a near-crash at the Sokoto airport with deflated tyres, damaging the airport’s Instrument Landing System. That same day, an Arik flight to Benin City had to return to Abuja as it could not land after hovering for over 40 minutes due to a downpoor that made the tarmac slippery.

Announcing Dana’s suspension, Mr. Yakubu Dati, Coordinating General Manager, Corporate Communications, Aviation Parastatals, said it was meant to allow NCAA to “conduct an operational audit” on the carrier and its planes.

NCAA had also grounded Dana’s operations over the same “certain safety issues,” last March 17. The government had on June 5 last year revoked the operational licence of Dana, two days after the crash in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos.

Meanwhile, former Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, has dissociated himself from the ownership of the ill-fated Embraer 120 aircraft belonging to Associated Aviation Limited which crashed on Thursday while conveying the remains of a former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, killing 13 out of the 20 people on board.

Igbinedion, a former Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), in a statement while commiserating with the families of the deaceased stated: “My attention has been drawn to the news report linking myself with the ownership of the Associated Aviation Limited, the airline that operates the Embraer 120 aircraft with registration number SCD 361 and to state without iota of doubt that I have no interest whatsoever in the airline. No proxy ownership either.This information can be verified from the records at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).”

Igbinedion who had earlier consoled with the family of Agagu when he died also sent his condolence to the families of the victims and prayed for speedy recovery of those injured.

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