The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has referred a complaint about excessive heat and alleged ventilation problems aboard an Abuja-Calabar flight to its operations directorate for investigation, following a passenger’s report that he began bleeding while waiting inside the aircraft.
The incident was reported by passenger Bashir Usman, who said travellers remained onboard for about 50 minutes after the aircraft doors were shut, without the engines running or the air conditioning functioning.
In a post on X, Usman said passengers boarded at 12:07 p.m. on Monday, October 26, but the conditions inside the aircraft became unbearable, eventually causing him to bleed.
He said the flight arrived in Calabar at 2:04 p.m., despite having a scheduled duration of about 45 minutes, describing the experience as distressing.
According to Usman, cabin crew members approached him and indicated that he might have to leave the aircraft because of the bleeding. However, he maintained that he was fine and credited fellow passengers with intervening to support him.
He said some travellers took turns fanning him, while a woman offered him her personal mini fan. Their intervention, he added, helped persuade the crew to allow him to remain onboard.
The NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said he had spoken with Usman by telephone and expressed sympathy over the incident. After obtaining the airline’s name, he said he would forward the complaint to the authority’s Directorate of Operations, Licensing and Training Standards for investigation.
Achimugu said the regulator would seek to establish why passengers were allegedly kept inside an aircraft without functioning air conditioning or ventilation during the delay. He added that a determination would be made if the passenger’s account was substantiated.
The NCAA official also questioned whether the crew had provided an explanation or apology for the reported conditions during the delay and after the flight arrived in Calabar.
However, Achimugu defended the crew’s responsibility to prioritise safety, cautioning passengers against preventing cabin crew from carrying out their duties. He said the crew might not have known the cause of Usman’s bleeding and could have been concerned that he required urgent medical attention.
He explained that cabin crew members had to consider the safety of everyone onboard rather than assume that a passenger’s symptoms were harmless. He also cited heightened vigilance amid Nigeria’s recent Ebola concerns as a reason crew members might take bleeding or other symptoms seriously.
The NCAA has not publicly established the airline involved, confirmed whether the aircraft’s air conditioning system malfunctioned or announced the outcome of its investigation.
The inquiry will determine the circumstances surrounding the reported delay and onboard conditions, as well as whether any regulatory action is warranted.
