{"id":5345,"date":"2019-02-10T20:28:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T20:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=5345"},"modified":"2019-02-10T20:28:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T20:28:57","slug":"max-air-in-the-eyes-of-the-storm-british-government-detains-quiz-nigerian-pilot-captain-adam-dilli-ibrahim-for-unlawfully-hiding-aboard-airplane-charges-nigerian-airline-180000-a-day-as-they-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/max-air-in-the-eyes-of-the-storm-british-government-detains-quiz-nigerian-pilot-captain-adam-dilli-ibrahim-for-unlawfully-hiding-aboard-airplane-charges-nigerian-airline-180000-a-day-as-they-c\/","title":{"rendered":"MAX AIR IN THE EYES OF THE STORM: BRITISH Government Detains, Quiz Nigerian Pilot, Captain ADAM DILLI IBRAHIM for unlawfully hiding aboard airplane…Charges Nigerian airline \u00a3180,000 a day as they cannot find another pilot to fly the plane after Ibrahim was deported * Pilot earlier fingerprinted, photographed and humiliated in Britain for being a stowaway * Airline consultant, Frank Unokesan, disputes UK claim, says ‘Whenever they see a green (Nigerian) passport they have doubted they are the captain and believe he is a stowaway, that\u2019s their mindset’ * Max Air may now avoid Britain in future and take its business to Germany, which has allowed pilots to stay for up to three months without any problems BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF & NNEKA OKIM\/AVIATION EDITOR, LONDON"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MAX AIR IN THE EYES OF THE STORM:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRITISH Government\nDetains, Quiz Nigerian Pilot, Captain ADAM DILLI IBRAHIM for\nunlawfully hiding aboard airplane<\/strong>…Charges\nNigerian airline \u00a3180,000 <\/strong>a\nday as they cannot find another pilot to fly the plane after\nIbrahim was deported<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Pilot earlier\nfingerprinted, photographed and humiliated in Britain for being a\nstowaway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Airline consultant,\nFrank\nUnokesan, disputes UK claim, says ‘Whenever\nthey see a green (Nigerian) passport they have doubted they are the\ncaptain and believe he is a stowaway, that\u2019s their mindset’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Max\nAir may now avoid Britain in future and take its business to Germany,\nwhich has allowed pilots to stay for up to three months without any\nproblems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU\nCHIEF & NNEKA OKIM\/AVIATION EDITOR, LONDON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THIS IS NOT THE BEST OF\nTIMES FOR MAX AIR, ONE OF NIGERIA’S INDIGENOUS AIRLINES as the\naviation company is battling to absolved itself from the unending\nopprobrium which greeted the arrest, questioning and eventual\ndeportation of Captain Adam Dilli Ibrahim alleged by United Kingdom\nimmigration authorities for unlawfully entering Britain having hidden\ninside aboard the airline. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 36 year old Nigerian\npilot from Dilli in Adamawa state married to Lesha Sheji was\nobviously livid, traumatized at the sight of his humiliation by\nUnited Kingdom immigration authorities. And the airline is being made\nto lose a princely sum of \u00a3180,000 a day after pilot\nforced to leave because of hostile environment policy. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nigerian\nairline says it could pull its business out of the United Kingdom\nafter one of its pilots was arrested by immigration officials on\nsuspicion of being a stowaway and threatened with deportation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Air, which\nis based in Nigeria, condemned the move by border staff at\nBournemouth International Airport as an example of the Home Office\u2019s\n\u201chostile environment policy\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As earlier\nsaid the company is now losing \u00a3180,000 a day because they cannot\nfind another pilot to fly the plane after Captain Ibrahim returned\nhome voluntarily on another flight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain\nIbrahim was detained for questioning, fingerprinted and photographed\nbefore being told he would be forcibly removed \u2013 even though pilots\ndo not legally require leave to enter the UK for seven days or less.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank\nUnokesan, Aviation Consultant whose company is responsible for\nmaintaining Max Air planes, reportedly said<\/strong><\/em>that\nthere had been a \u2018long history\u2019 of problems with immigration\nofficials.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His words:\n\u201cWhenever they see a green (Nigerian) passport they have doubted\nthey are the captain and believe he is a stowaway, that\u2019s their\nmindset. The captain has done\nnothing wrong. I feel terrible, I feel ashamed. It is so much\nbureaucracy.\u201d <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unokesan\ncompared it to the problems suffered by other Commonwealth citizens\nunder the so-called \u201chostile environment\u201d set up by Theresa May\nwhen she was home secretary, \u201cThat\u2019s the way I see it. I would\nhave thought with Brexit the UK would try and make more friends but\nnow they are kicking us in the teeth. \n\u201cI\ndon\u2019t know what kind of government they are running,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\navert a repetition of a sinister sad experience as happened in\nBritain, Max Air may now avoid the UK in future and take its business\nto Germany, which has allowed pilots to stay for up to three months\nwithout any problems. The aviation consultant explained: \u201cNigeria\nis a former colony of the UK and we are trying to do business with\nBritain but now they are turning back our business and deporting the\npilot,\u201d said Mr Unokesan. \u201cMax Air has ten Boeings and five\nprivate jets, one of the biggest in the market in Nigeria. The\nmanaging director is so angry they are treating us like this. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf\nyou treat us like this, what is the hope for the future in the UK?\u201d<\/strong>\nThe\ndispute with the Home Office centres on the interpretation of the\nImmigration Act 1971, which states that a pilot or crew member does\nnot require leave to enter the UK if they depart within seven days.\nCaptain\nIbrahim, who has previously flown in and out of the UK without\nproblem, told immigration officials on arrival on 10 December that\nthe maintenance work on the aircraft was scheduled to last between\nseven and ten days. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead\nof respecting the position of the captain, they take his passport and\nthey said after seven days we will talk about that,\u201d said Mr\nUnokesan.<\/strong>\n\u201cThey\nsuspected the co-pilot is the real pilot because he has a visa in his\npassport and the captain is a stowaway posing as a captain. So they\narrested him for entering into the UK without a visa.\u201d\nAfter taking\nlegal advice, the pilot voluntarily flew out of the UK on 16\nDecember. The maintenance work finished on 20 December but Max Air is\nunable to find a replacement captain at short notice. The aircraft\nremains in the UK and the co-pilot is still staying at a local hotel.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis\nmaintenance work alone was bringing in $100,000 (\u00a380,000) of\nbusiness to the UK, but we are losing $9,500 (\u00a37,500) an hour,\u201d\nsaid Mr Unokesan. Max Air say that on previous occasions they have\neither brought in more engineers to finish the work in time or\napplied for an extension of leave for the pilot. Mandie Sewa, senior\nsolicitor and head of immigration at Moore Blatch Solicitors, which\nrepresents the airline, said:\u201dThe recently published government\nwhite paper assumes that the UK will continue to be an attractive\ndestination for non-EU migrants. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However\nour client has suffered huge financial losses amounting to\napproximately $9,500 per hour, because of the current\nanti-immigration message received from the immigration officials at\nthe border due to hostile immigration policy. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAX AIR IN THE EYES OF THE STORM: BRITISH Government Detains, Quiz Nigerian Pilot, Captain ADAM DILLI IBRAHIM for unlawfully hiding aboard airplane…Charges Nigerian airline \u00a3180,000 a day as they cannot find another pilot to fly the plane after Ibrahim was deported * Pilot earlier fingerprinted, photographed and humiliated in Britain for being a stowaway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}