Turkish Airlines compensates aggrieved passengers

By Isaac Tersoo Agber

Turkish Airlines has paid the prescribed compensation to all the passengers whose luggages were delayed in the infamous Flight  TK 624 scheduled service from Istanbul to Abuja, following the intervention of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The Airline, under the supervision of the Consumer Protection Officers (CPO) of the Regulatory Authority, ensured that all the passengers were paid full monetary compensation as contained in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs).

In addition, a cargo flight and an Airbus were arranged to freight to Abuja,Nigeria,all contentious backlog of luggages that were earlier short landed.

National Daily gathered that all concerned passengers have collected same as at the time of this report.

This was contained in a report of the investigation carried out by NCAA over the recent Tarmac Intrusion by Turkish Airlines passengers submitted to the Director General of the NCAA,Capt. Muhtar Usman.

There were several observations and recommendations in the report, which included provision of sign ages informing passengers of possible penalties of unlawful acts at the airport.

The report further read that clear cut penalties arising from unlawful acts should be displayed to serve as a deterrent measure to would be violators.

The Close Circuit Television(CCTV) footage will be deployed and the Turkish Airlines should assist in identifying the unruly passengers for prosecution to dissuade others from carrying out similar acts henceforth.

At the final phase of the investigation, salient questions will be asked on failure of airport management that granted free access to the disgruntled passengers. And if established guilty, sanctions will be applied for violating access control requirements in line with the National Civil Aviation Security Program (NCASP) chapters 4.5 (a),6.1.4.6.2.1 and 6.3.2.

Also, the requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations Part 17 section 17.37.1-3 will be applied.

The NCAA has also directed  concerned agencies to put up appropriate control mechanism strong enough to prevent unauthorized access to restricted  areas of the airports  forthwith.

The NCaA’s spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said the recommendations and other procedures will be implemented to the letter to foreclose and mitigate future occurrence of such kind.