150 passengers stranded as ground handler damages Air Peace Aircraft

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Flight operations at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, were disrupted on Friday due to a ground handling accident involving a freshly acquired Embraer 195-E2 operated by Air Peace.

The aircraft, registered 5N-BYH, was scheduled to fly Flight P47750 from Lagos to Accra when a luggage conveyor belt truck owned by the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO, collided with one of its engines while on the ground.

The incident occurred after the passengers had finished boarding.

The impact caused obvious damage to the aircraft’s thrust reverser cowling, which is part of the engine casing, necessitating an emergency safety check and grounding of the plane.

As a result, around 150 passengers on board were requested to disembark, causing delays and the cancellation of numerous scheduled trips.

According to a source, the aircraft was assigned to perform nine flight sectors for the day, all of which were disrupted, forcing numerous passengers to rebook or be stranded.

Aside from passenger irritation, the source stated that the occurrence has considerable financial ramifications, as aircraft engine repairs are often pricey.

He noted that comparable cowling damage earlier this year apparently cost an airline over $3.5 million to repair.

No injuries were reported, and investigations are underway to ascertain the circumstances behind the crash.

Attempts to gain comments from NAHCO’s Assistant General Manager for Corporate Communications, Mr Tayo Ajakaye, were unsuccessful because he was unavailable at the time of writing this report.

Meanwhile, Mr Michael Achimugu, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), acknowledged that the event caused the disruption of Air Peace’s Lagos-Accra service.

In a post on X, Achimugu explained that passengers had already boarded when the ground handling equipment collided with the aircraft, breaking the engine cover and forcing them to deboard.

He stated that the damaged aircraft was scheduled to fly nine flight legs, and that customers booked on those flights would inevitably face delays or cancellations.

According to him, the airline would face compensation claims, refund requirements, and reputational backlash for a disruption that was not its fault, as well as significant foreign exchange charges to rectify the harm.

Achimugu cited a similar incident involving a bird hit, which apparently cost the airline over $3 million to fix, saying that a replacement engine cowling took about a month to arrive from the manufacturer.

He further stated that the damaged aircraft was one of Air Peace’s newly delivered E2 jets, which was fully booked until January 15, 2026, implying that customers scheduled for future flights would be affected.

The NCAA spokeswoman emphasized that airlines frequently cite “technical” or “operational” reasons for such disruptions rather than publicly assigning blame to service providers, even when the airline is not at fault.

He proposed that inadequately trained ground handling personnel should be held accountable for occurrences that cause significant financial, technical, and reputational losses to airlines.

Achimugu also stated that the NCAA is exploring additional regulatory measures, such as harsher sanctions for service providers found responsible in similar situations.

He urged passengers to be fully informed about the true causes of flight disruptions and asked for understanding from those affected, noting that while Air Peace has standby aircraft, they have already been deployed to address other operational challenges and have a lower seating capacity than the damaged E2 jet.

“These behind-the-scenes realities often make airlines appear culpable when they are not,” he said.

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