Is Air Peace Safe?

……….Concerns Grow Over Frequent Safety Issues

Air Peace is a private Nigerian airline that I’ve been fascinated by. The airline has been flying since 2013 primarily as a regional airline, though just a couple of weeks ago launched their first long haul flight to Sharjah in the UAE. The airline has big expansion plans, and wants to add flights to Guangzhou, Houston, and London.

A lot of questions have been raised about the safety of flying with Air Peace, though. The Accident Investigation Bureau of Nigeria has admonished the airline for failing to report accidents and serious incidents on multiple occasions, and for overwriting cockpit voice recorders to conceal evidence.

First of all, Twitter…

Before I talk too much about Air Peace, can I point out how epic the Accident Investigation Bureau of Nigeria Twitter account is?

On their official Twitter account they posted video footage of the guy climbing onto the wing of a departing plane (which I wrote about several days ago), and hashtagged it with:

#aviation #FridayFeeling #MMIA #LionKing2019 #TheGift

Seriously?! I can’t decide whether to shake my head, or laugh to the point that I have tears in my eyes.

And yep, also gotta love that #FridayMotivation!

And love flying? Download their app so that you can live report accidents and incidents! #TuesdayMotivation.

Air Peace has yet another safety incident…

Back to Air Peace. Airfleets says that the airline has a fleet of a dozen 737s, though looking at flight tracking only four of them have flown in the past several weeks.

Since mid-May, there have been three incidents involving these planes, which is rather concerning.

On May 15, 2019, an Air Peace 737 flying from Port Harcourt to Lagos had a hard landing that resulted in damage to the engine pod and the landing gear (Air Peace didn’t initially report this incident to authorities).

Then on June 22, 2019, an Air Peace 737 flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt ended up off the runway due to heavy rain, and came to a rest in soft mud.

Air Peace Boeing 737-500 skidded off runway at Port Harcourt Airport during heavy rain

Air Peace Boeing 737-500 skidded off runway at Port Harcourt Airport during heavy rain.

Today there’s yet another incident, as an Air Peace 737 lost a tire while landing in Lagos.

Details are still emerging about what happened today, though the good news is that there weren’t any fatalities.

So while none of these incidents were fatal, it sure is concerning when such a small airline has so many things happen in a short period.

By the way, Air Peace had another 737 incident late last year, so here’s a very odd interview with the CEO where he explains what happens. It basically boils down to “of course Air Peace is safe, our pilots don’t want to die!”