The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) issued a safety directive on 3 October 2018 requiring all Nigerian air operators to review and reinforce runway excursion prevention procedures, following at least three separate excursion incidents involving domestic carriers between January and September that year.
A Pattern the Regulator Wanted Addressed
NCAA's Director of Airworthiness Standards said the incidents, which occurred during landing in varying weather conditions and involved different aircraft types, shared common threads around approach stabilisation and go-around decision-making, and that the directive was intended to ensure crews were reinforcing stabilised-approach criteria rather than waiting for a serious accident to prompt action.
Airlines Ordered to Report Compliance
Operators were given 30 days to submit updated standard operating procedures and evidence of crew retraining on stabilised approach and go-around criteria to the NCAA's Flight Standards directorate. The Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau said it would continue independently investigating the individual excursion incidents to determine whether any required further regulatory action beyond the directive.