Flight operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, were disrupted on Friday following a ground handling accident involving a newly acquired Embraer 195-E2 aircraft operated by Air Peace.
The aircraft, registered as 5N-BYH, was scheduled to operate Flight P47750 from Lagos to Accra when a luggage conveyor belt truck belonging to the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO, struck one of its engines while it was on the ground.
The incident occurred after passengers had completed boarding.
The collision 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.
As a result, about 150 passengers already on board were asked to disembark, leading to delays and the cancellation of several scheduled services.
A source disclosed that the aircraft was assigned to operate nine flight sectors for the day, all of which were affected, forcing many passengers to be rebooked or left stranded.
Beyond passenger inconvenience, the source noted that the incident carries significant financial implications, as repairs involving aircraft engines are typically expensive.
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 led to 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 hit the aircraft, damaging the engine cover and necessitating deboarding.
He said the affected aircraft was scheduled to operate nine flight legs and that passengers booked on those flights would inevitably experience delays or cancellations.
According to him, the airline would face compensation claims, refund obligations and reputational backlash for a disruption that was not of its making, while also incurring substantial foreign exchange costs to repair the damage.
Achimugu referenced a previous incident involving a bird strike 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 passengers scheduled on its future operations would also be affected.
The NCAA spokesperson stressed that airlines often cite “technical” or “operational” reasons for such 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 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.
