Flight operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, were disrupted on Friday after a ground handling accident involving a newly acquired Air Peace Embraer 195-E2 aircraft left more than 150 passengers stranded.
The aircraft, with registration number 5N-BYH, was scheduled to operate Flight P47750 from Lagos to Accra when a luggage conveyor belt truck operated by the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) struck one of its engines while on the ground.
The incident occurred shortly after passengers had completed boarding. The impact caused visible damage to the aircraft’s thrust reverser cowling, a component of the engine casing, prompting an immediate safety inspection and the grounding of the plane.
Consequently, about 150 passengers were asked to disembark, resulting in delays and the cancellation of several scheduled flights.
A source disclosed that the aircraft was billed to operate nine flight sectors for the day, all of which were affected by the incident, forcing passengers to be rebooked or left stranded.
Beyond passenger inconvenience, the source noted that the accident carries major financial implications, as engine-related repairs are typically costly. He recalled that a similar cowling damage earlier in the year reportedly cost an airline about $3.5 million to fix.
No injuries were recorded, and investigations have commenced to determine the circumstances surrounding the collision.
Efforts to obtain comments from NAHCO’s Assistant General Manager for Corporate Communications, Mr Tayo Ajakaye, were unsuccessful as he was unavailable at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr Michael Achimugu, confirmed that the incident disrupted Air Peace’s Lagos–Accra service.
In a post on X, Achimugu explained that passengers had already boarded when the ground handling equipment struck the aircraft, damaging the engine cover and necessitating their deboarding.
He said the affected aircraft was scheduled to operate nine flight legs, meaning passengers booked on those services would inevitably face delays or cancellations.
According to him, Air Peace would face compensation claims, refund obligations and reputational backlash for a disruption that was not of its making, while also incurring significant foreign exchange costs to repair the damage.
Achimugu referenced a previous bird strike incident that reportedly cost the airline over $3 million to resolve, noting that it took nearly a month for a replacement engine cowling to arrive from the manufacturer.
He added that the damaged aircraft was one of Air Peace’s newly delivered E2 jets and had been fully booked until January 15, 2026, meaning future passengers scheduled on its operations would also be affected.
The NCAA spokesperson stressed that airlines often cite “technical” or “operational” reasons for disruptions rather than publicly attributing fault to service providers, even when the airline is not responsible.
He argued that poorly trained ground handling personnel should be held accountable for incidents that inflict heavy financial, technical and reputational losses on airlines.
Achimugu further disclosed that the NCAA is considering tougher regulatory measures, including stricter sanctions for service providers found culpable in similar incidents.
He urged passengers to be honestly informed about the true causes of flight disruptions and appealed for understanding from those affected, noting that while Air Peace has standby aircraft, they were already deployed to address other operational challenges and also have lower seating capacity than the damaged E2 jet.
“These behind-the-scenes realities often make airlines appear culpable when they are not,” he said.
