RnB crooner, 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.
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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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