Oluwaseun Akinfolarin, one of the three passengers aboard an Air Peace 6:30 p.m. flight to Abuja from Lagos on Monday who were arrested and charged to court for alleged unruly behaviour and for obstructing the operations of the airline said he was being persecuted for pointing out they had seat on their emergency exit aisle.
@ChubaEzeks I am been charged for breach of peace by @flyairpeace for pointing out that they have seats on their emergency exit aisle pic.twitter.com/Fs4ITiZfTW
— Akinfolarin Seun (@uberseun) September 12, 2017
Akinfolarin who wrote about the incident on his Twitter page, said he was arrested just because he called one of the hostesses on the flight during the routine safety drill and requested to know why the airline had seats blocking the aeroplane’s emergency exits.
#askquestions @Omojuwa today I asked @flyairpeace why they had seats on the emergency aisle, they had me arrested
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— Akinfolarin Seun (@uberseun) September 11, 2017
He said his observation sparked a tense debate between some of the passengers and the airline’s staffers which eventually got him [Akinfolarin] and two others to be forced down by security agents, arrested and taken to a police station in the Ikeja area of Lagos.
They were later granted bail and told to report to the station yesterday.
Meanwhile, The airline’s Corporate Communications Manager, Mr Chris Iwarah, yesterday, in Lagos, said security personnel from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, had to be invited to restore order in a statement he released to newsmen.
He said: “We wish to confirm and set the records straight regarding the unruly and disruptive conduct of three passengers (two men and a lady) on our 6:30 Lagos-Abuja service on Sept. 11. AirPeace “During the pre-departure safety briefing by our crew, the three passengers began to query the seating arrangement of the aircraft.
“Efforts by our crew to let the passengers understand that the seating arrangement was as approved by both the FAAN and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, were rebuffed.” According to him, the pilot-in-command of the flight was later briefed by the crew to intervene but the passengers refused to cooperate with the captain.
Iwarah said they insisted on bringing the airline’s engineers on board to confirm the airworthiness of the aircraft. He said: ”The passengers insisted that the aircraft was unsafe and would suffer the fate of one other domestic airline which had one of its aircraft crashed some years ago.
“The unruly passengers prevented our crew from continuing with the safety briefing. “Understandably, other passengers on board the flight became apprehensive and insisted that unruly passengers should be taken off the flight.” “The pilot-in-command, therefore, had no choice than to request the unruly passengers to disembark.
The passengers, however, refused to comply, leading to the captain of the flight calling for the intervention of FAAN security personnel.” “The passengers also refused to refrain from their disruptive conduct upon the intervention of FAAN security personnel.”
Iwarah said after about three hours delay, two of the disruptive passengers eventually agreed to disembark, while the lady among them was adamant.