SENATORS, yesterday, demanded the resignation of senior officials in the aviation sector following what they described as embarrassing failure to find the Wings Aviation plane four days after it went missing.
The demand of the lawmakers was upon a motion brought to the Senate floor by Senator Anyim Ude, Chairman of the Committee on Aviation.
The frustration of the lawmakers was articulated by the Senate President, Chief David Mark, who presided at yesterday�s session.
�I don�t know why somebody in the aviation industry is not throwing in the towel on this issue. It is a serious issue, after four days nobody can say where the aircraft is. This is not good enough for this nation,� he said.
Four days on, the missing Wings Aviation company�s Beechcraft 1900 aircraft with three crew members on board is yet to be found by the aviation authorities and the National Emergency Management Agency (NAMA).
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Minister of State for Air Transport, Mr. Felix Hassan Hyat, last Sunday raised hopes that the wreckage of the ill-fated plane had been found, but it turned out to be a hoax.
With the confirmation by NEMA that the wreckage was yet to be found, the Federal Government has deployed more helicopters to continue the search, even beyond Nigeria’s borders, up to Cameroun.
Although the airlines management said, weekend, that the aircraft had functional and serviceable Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) on board, an aviation expert, who craved anonymity, wondered if the equipment was actually in good condition.
According to him, the transmitter ought to have emitted signals to NEMA on impact with either hard ground or water, to give an idea of crash area.
Apparently embarrassed by the gaffe which gave the impression that the plane�s wreckage had been found, no government official was ready to speak on the issue yesterday, but Vanguard gathered from sources close to Air Transport Ministry that the minister himself had taken charge of the search and rescue operation, having been misled by technocrats in parastatals under his ministry on the issue.
The airlines also confirmed that its personnel were involved in the search and rescue operation around the Obudu area.
Meanwhile, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Prof. Shaib Abdulraheem as Chairman of the Federal Character Commission and 27 commissioners of the agency.
The Senate confirmation followed the submission of the report on their screening by Senator Smart Adeyemi, chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character.