The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Michael Achimugu, in this interview with DAILY POST, provided detail on the Ibom Air Passenger, Comfort Emmason’s airport incident. He explained why the Ibom Air passenger, Emmason, was charged to court and why it is difficult for the NCAA to stop unruly behaviour by passengers. Excepts:
What are the details of the Ibom Air passenger, Comfort Emmason’s incident from the NCAA’s preliminary investigation?
You see, all over the world, unruly passenger behaviour happens every day. And all over the world, any violent passenger can be removed in whatever way security deems fit, given the situation at that moment. There are standard operating protocols for this.
Now, the case here is that this passenger refused to switch off her phone before departure. Other passengers got mad at this passenger. The passenger in the seat beside her actually collected her phone and turned it off.
Because, you know, when you refuse to turn off your phone, some passengers are afraid. Yeah, you are reaching the lights of all this, yeah. So the passenger took her phone and turned it off.
Reports indicate that throughout that flight, she was unruly mid-air, giving the middle finger to other passengers and to the cabin crew. So generally, the cabin crew avoided her. When the plane landed in Lagos, passengers disembarked.
All of them. Nobody knew that she was still on that aircraft. They thought she had disembarked as well.
While they were preparing the aircraft for turnaround, she just came out of her seat, 14F, and then worked to the air hostess on her foot and began to slap her.
Because of that action, security was called. When the passenger learned that security had been called, she wanted to leave the plane, and that is why the air hostess blocked the exit.
You understand? She blocked the exit. And when security came, you could see she was still struggling and fighting, grabbing people, hitting people, and all of that.
Bringing such a person out of the small-body aircraft was not going to be tidy. There’s no way it was going to be tidy.
She needed to be removed. The plane was also due to board other passengers who were waiting for a flight. So they had to remove her by whatever means necessary.
The passenger’s cloth was stripped off…was that the right action to take?
Now, if you saw the videos, even when she was brought out of the plane, at some point, her top got torn, her body parts were exposed, and all of that. But it was because she was struggling.
If she had not been unruly and fighting the way she was, if she had just quietly complied as they came to ask her to disembark, then there would have been no such situation. She had no right to attack.
We see how she was punching people. The reason they had to remove her by force was because she had gone to carry the fire extinguisher on the aircraft to attack that girl on her head. Who would sit back and watch her kill somebody?
Nobody’s going to sit back and watch her do that. So, now they have carried her— you notice, even when they got her into the bus, she was still fighting. She was fighting inside the bus and all of that.
How easy can it be? Look, I have videos from similar situations abroad. The airport security there— it gets untidy, very untidy, and they kick passengers in the face. They do that when necessary, sometimes even when unnecessary.
Some Nigerians are of the view that the Ibom Air passenger, Emmason, was treated unfairly when compared to Fuji musician Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, K1 de Ultimate (Kwam 1), why is this different?
You asked how we are taking, how the NCAA is taking these issues. We are taking them in our strides and within the ambit of the regulations.
There’s nothing to put together here. The Ibom Air passenger was arrested and charged to court. So long as that case is in court, the NCAA has no role to play in it. Okay. We did not sue Kwam 1; we did not sue this lady. So, you know, Nigeria needs to decide what they really want.
How do you expect to carry the strength of somebody who is fighting at the level that woman was fighting? Anyway, in this case, the NCAA, the only concern we have, is that there is zero tolerance for such unruly passenger behaviour.
So every narrative around this court decision that concerns the NCAA should be dismissed because the NCAA does not have the power to prosecute any passenger yet.
What is the NCAA doing to prevent unruly behaviour by passengers?
We continue to educate passengers, but it happens all over. Human behaviour is unpredictable. That is why there are punishments and ramifications for such behaviour.
Yes, there are rules that say, “Don’t do this.” Because even the rule makers knew that, despite the rules, people will misbehave sometimes. There are ramifications, fines, imprisonment, and the no-fly list to serve as deterrence to others.
So, as much as we can be proactive, it is also mostly a reactive aspect of this thing. Until a passenger has been unruly, we cannot do anything to them, right? Nothing can be done. I understand.
What is your advice for Nigerians?
The laws are made for your safety. So, you must obey. It is not a matter of your opinion. It is not your place to tell the cabin crew; if I leave my phone on, nothing will happen.
If they tell you to turn off your phone, turn it off. You can come and say that to them, but when I travelled to America, I didn’t need to turn off my phone. No, turn it off when they ask you to turn it off.
