April 01, (THEWILL) – Ibom Air has explained why the airline took the decision of disembarking a passenger who appeared unruly in their Abuja-Lagos flight on Friday evening.
The airline, in a statement issued Saturday morning, stated that the their crew deemed his continuous unruly behaviour unsafe and called on airport security to help with the situation.
“Upon his refusal to stop or disembark peacefully, the security operatives were left with no choice, but to forcefully disembark the passenger as a last option.”
An undisclosed passenger of the airline had on Friday, disrupted the evening flight for over half an hour.
The man, who is in his 50s, was said to have stood at the middle of the plane and started shouting at the top of his voice
He was quoted to have said, “You all are sitting here and Tinubu is about to be sworn in as President. lai lai, Tinubu must never be sworn in. He must never be president.”
Most of the passengers were worried about the man’s attitude and the security men were invited to take him out of the plane.
It was a very difficult task for the security officers to take him out of the plane, a situation that delayed the flight for almost an hour.
As they made attempt to bundle him out, the passenger kept shouting Obidient! Obidient! Obidient.
The plane, meant to leave around 6 pm, was still on ground as at 7pm.
The aircraft, however, left after the passenger had been pulled out of the plane.
In their official statement, signed by Aniekan Essienette, Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, the airline explained that “a passenger stood up and began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous.
“Our crew deemed his continuous unruly behaviour unsafe and called on airport security to help with the situation. Upon his refusal to stop or disembark peacefully, the security operatives were left with no choice, but to forcefully disembark the passenger as a last option.
“Ibom Air wishes to assure our passengers that we maintain very high safety and service standards and will never compromise the safety and security of our passengers.
“We apologise to the affected passengers for the time it took to disembark this passenger, which caused an otherwise on-time departure to be delayed by an hour”, the airline added.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
