NCAA lifts ban on B737 Max plane operations in local airspace
T HENigerian Civil A viation A uthority ( NCAA) has cleared the embattled Boeing 737 Max planes to operate in Nigerian airspace. By this approval, foreign airlines could now fly the aircraft in the countr y’s airspace, while local carrier, Air Peace, could also take deliver y of its 737 Max orders from Boeing.
In a memorandum to operators dated February 12, 2021, the NCAA stated that the Boeing series was approved following the United States Federal Aviation Administration’s ( FAA) recent approvals and reentr y conditions.
The B737 Max had been grounded globally for almost two years following two fatal accidents of the series occurring in similar circumstances.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had also banned the Boeing 737 Max aircraft from operating in the Nigerian airspace.
The FAA gave its approval to the 737 Max airliners to resume passenger flights, while the Department of Justice charged Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the United States and would have to pay a $ 2.5b fine for lying to the FAA before and after the fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
SHELL Petroleum Development Company ( SPDC) has said it is working to secure expeditious discharge of court order freezing its accounts, which was obtained by AITEO Eastern ( E& P) Company Limited.
AITEO had sought an exparte order from a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos for an injunction directing 20 commercial banks to block accounts of SPDC and affiliates of the Royal Dutch Shell company operating in Nigeria in a bid to recover cash value of more than 16 million barrels of crude allegedly diverted by the oil giant.
Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo gave the order in suit no FHC/ L/ CS/ 52/ 2021, directing the 20 banks where Shell companies operate accounts in Nigeria to “ring- fence any cash, bonds, deposits and all forms of negotiable instruments.”
The court directed the banks to pay all standing credits to the Shell companies up to the value into an interest yielding account in the name of chief registrar of the court, who is to hold the funds in trust pending hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction filed before it by AITEO.
AITEO, alongside some other indigenous oil producers, have alleged that Shell short- changed them using the unapproved methodology to calculate the volume of crude it lifts on their behalf from the terminal.
In its reaction, Shell stated: “It is important to note that the claims underpinning the interim freeze order obtained by the plaintiff, Aiteo Eastern E& P Company Limited, relate to sale of the interests of SPDC and two other SPDC JV partners in the Nembe Creek Trunk Line ( NCTL) and OML 29 to Aiteo in 2015, and crude reallocation programme between injectors into the SPDC JV’S Trans Niger Pipeline and injectors into Aiteo’s NCTL, which is a normal industry practice.
“The disputes are subject of ongoing litigation and SPDC is working to secure an expeditious discharge of the freezing injunction which we believe was obtained by Aiteo without any valid basis.