Air Peace journey to long-haul operations to Dubai, Sharjah, London, Houston, Guangzhou-China, Mumbai & Johannesburg commenced at 8 o’clock this morning with demonstration flights to Dakar, Senegal with NCAA inspectors on board from the Murtala Mohammed International airport, Lagos.
The demonstration flight is embarked on with its B777 aircraft flown by Captains Victor Egonu and Simon Donughue.
According to the airlines Corporate communications Manager, Chris Iwarah, “the non-revenue flights to demonstrate our capabilities with the Boeing 777 next visit Kano, Port Harcourt, Freetown, Johannesburg & Sharjah. This is what goes into ensuring the safety of our valued customers and crew – costly but necessary”.
The airline, which made history as the first Nigerian carrier to acquire and take delivery of a Boeing 777-200 on February 23, 2018, assured that it would soon announce dates for the launch of its long-haul operations to London, Houston, Dubai, Sharjah, Guangzhou-China, Mumbai and Johannesburg.
The new aircraft, a 320-seater Boeing 777-300 named “Ojochide” and marked 5N-BUU, was flown into the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos by Air Peace Chief Pilot, Capt. Victor Egonu and Senior First Officer Emmanuel Iwhiwhu. It touched down to a rousing welcome by staff of the carrier, aviation workers and water salute staged by men of the Fire Service of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at about 1.36 p.m.
Air Peace, successfully performed partial emergency evacuation and ditching demonstrations as part of the safety tests for the operation of its Boeing 777 aircraft.
Iwarah said the test, which was conducted by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Nov. 29, was a major regulatory hurdle on the airline’s path to begin international flight services. He said : “Emergency aircraft evacuation refers to an exercise aimed at evacuating those on an aircraft when an emergency occurs on the ground, in water or mid-flight.
“The ditching demonstration, however, simulates a planned water landing and evaluates the airline’s ability to handle such emergency. “An emergency evacuation demonstration is mostly required when an airline proposes operating a specific aircraft type and model entering into its service for the first time. “Once the signal for it is given, the aircraft’s emergency evacuation equipment and 50 per cent of the required emergency exits and slides must be ready for use in a maximum of 15 seconds. “Although simulated, evacuation drills are a risky operation for crew and other participants — often leading to injury of varying degrees.”
He said the airline’s emergency demonstrators, led by Capt. Simon Donoghue, were able to deploy the four slides of the eight-exit Boeing 777 aircraft within 10.5 seconds, which is 4.5 seconds ahead of the maximum time allowed.
