I decided to use the above rhetorical question with hope that what I experienced with Bellview Air couple with the recent occurrences and malfunctioning of the company, it is about the worst of all experiences. If after reading the following paragraphs, some readers still think, what the hell, there are other worse services from other local airlines then Nigeria consumers are indeed doomed. We should be awaiting another series of air crashes filling our media spaces like another soap opera. I hope not, I sincerely hope not because I am afraid I might be one of the victims either directly or indirectly.

I returned from a trip and purchased Bellview air ticket to return to Abuja from Lagos. When the estimated time for boarding arrived, all checked-in passengers when onboard and we waited to be airlifted. Unfortunately, the local airport’s runway was being worked on so we had to taxi the long route to international runway to take off. There were 6 other aircraft on the queue waiting for permission from the control tower to take off. So, we had to wait for our turn.

While waiting, I noticed that the cooling system in the airbus was defective. I called the attention of one of the cabin crew to it and he went to notify the pilot. He soon came back with news from the pilot that the cooling systems would be functioning properly as soon as we were in the air. That was comforting and at the same time scary. What if it never works? Nevertheless, there was no need to panic… other passengers were equally disturbed.

The waiting online was becoming too long because the traffic (both inbound and out bound aircrafts were many). Then other passengers started to get impatient. Suddenly we were first on the line and suddenly one of the passengers who was suffering most from the lack of sufficient air, passed out. There was a controlled panic because there were two medically looking individuals from amongst the passengers who came to control the situations. While the rescuing was going on, Bellview got the permission from the control tower to take off- (what we had been waiting for since almost one hour). And the cabin crew came to caution the doctors to take their seats in readiness for take off.

Passengers started to express shock. How could the pilot want to take off while one of the passengers had fainted and was being attended to. That was an unprofessional act and display of gross irresponsibility. It could not be the case that the life of one passenger was worthless when thinking of time it took to get permission for take off and the fear of another length of time to get to the take off position.

Finally, the pilot agreed it was ridiculous to take off and taxied back to the local airport.

At the local airport, I was expecting noises of sirens to blow and good number of medical personnel waiting to take the sick passengers to the bay. But what was awaiting us was the commuter bus which normally conveys passengers to the arrival hall. This was impossible. I could not believe what was happening. I did not want to think that the sick passenger would be transported out with a commuter bus and not with an ambulance!

I was still feeling surprised when we turned around and started to return to the international runway for permission to takeoff again.

The second time we attempted takeoff, only two aircrafts were ahead of us from the takeoff position. The wait was not too long. When finally it was time to take off again, someone at the control tower must have figured out what was happening; how could an aircraft become such a threat to one life and instant permission was being sought for the same airbus to take off without proper investigations as to what must have happened to threaten lives onboard.

The airbus was grounded.

The pilot, for the first time announced and apologies for the “rigmarolling”(sic) movements around the airport” his airbus had been grounded and he was returning to local airport.

I was in a hurry to return to Abuja because I had a business engagement against my arrival in town. Inspite of my haste, I sat back relaxed and was happy that someone, somewhere, here in Nigeria, still remembered to do what was right and what made sense. At that point, I knew I was going to write this article. I would have titled it, “Nigeria will work again” and I wanted to salute the courage and belligerence of whoever must have grounded that airbus. I thought that was nice and bold. I was going to use that article piece to remind us all and skeptics of Nigeria working again, that if there are people of these sorts in position of authority, people who still had grace and conscience, then we can be sure that people will always make informed and good decisions for the generality of Nigerians. But then I decided to look at another curious angle; why and how come Bellview got to this position when its plane had to be grounded?

Bellview had announced that we should disembark and the ground crew of the airline would see to our transfer to another aircraft for the completion of our journey. Luckily I was one of the first to disembark because I was sitting by the window next to the first class cabin. I walked to the departure hall and went straight to the Bellview counter. The lady did not have any idea about any other logistic arrangements. She only advised me to go to the next counter where there was aero airline which was about to close and which had few seats left on its Lagos-Abuja route. There were no arrangements by Bellview for its own customers. What a customer service display.

As I was going to aero airline counter, the Bellview staff responsible for the sales of tickets shouted across her side of the counter to the aero air sales lady; “please keep three seats free for me.” She was referring to seats aboard the Aero flight that was going to take off half an hour later. Since I was the first and only passenger from the grounded Bellview I wondered at what point anyone would have told this girl to make reservations for them. I was curious and marveled at Nigerian's quick respond to alternative plans for themselves. I quickly arranged for my own ticket before the hall became jam-packed with complaints and shouting.

After all the struggles, I entered the Aero flight and was sitting behind the first class cabin when after everyone was on board, three individuals emerged. They were the sick passenger from Bellview; the lady that grasped for air, the doctor and the friend (or husband). They walked in gallantly and went to take their seats. Then it made sense to me, Bellview made sure that these three who were abused by poor services got seats to proceed. It was their most logical offer to these one in order to avoid law suits. I shook my head in awe and gave up.

The moral of this account are the following:

a.   Did Bellview demonstrate sufficient care about lives of its passengers?

b.   Did Bellview act in the best interests of its passengers?

c.   Taking off without correcting malfunctioning cabin air; was that proper and safe?

d. What kind of service was it that a sick passenger was welcome at the foot of the airbus by a long commuter bus and not an ambulance?

e. Did Bellview pilots radio in for an ambulance? Was the ambulance late in coming… who was responsible; airport authority or Bellview air?

f.  If the control tower had not refused permission for take off, Bellview would have risked the lives of almost 150 passengers just for the fun and to make sure it airbus arrived in Abuja to pick the weekenders from Abuja heading back to Lagos State;

g.  After so many series of questionable performances of Bellview air, at what point do we bring it to public courtroom and banish it from our airspace telling others to be careful using it?

I rest my case.

Dele A. Sonubi can be reached on

dele4you2@yahoo.com

Robot  # 1 | 28.12.2007 11:27

var sbtitle8074=encodeURIComponent(Is It Not T...Read the full article.

ozoodoo  # 2 | 28.12.2007 16:57

Thanks for this piece. I hope someone from BellView Airlines reads it. Let more people share their experience of air travel in Nigeria with the world so that by so doing pressure could be brought on the airlines to improve their performance.

ifeolooni  # 3 | 28.12.2007 17:28

boldness is what we need big up to the airport authority

No Smoking  # 4 | 28.12.2007 18:03

Would have helped if the author, Dele Sonubi, had included a date and flight number of the event he reported in this article. There's no airline in the world that does not experience defects on some flights. That is not a reason to call for the shutdown of an airline. The Airworthiness authorities/agencies monitor the perfomance and safety of the airlines within their national borders. Passengers can help by bringing such safety concerns to the attention of the authorities.

Enforcer  # 5 | 29.12.2007 05:42

=No Smoking;4294976087>Would have helped if the author, Dele Sonubi, had included a date and flight number of the event he reported in this article. There's no airline in the world that does not experience defects on some flights. That is not a reason to call for the shutdown of an airline. The Airworthiness authorities/agencies monitor the perfomance and safety of the airlines within their national borders. Passengers can help by bringing such safety concerns to the attention of the authorities. No Smoking, That is a wise man talk. I think the view expressed by the author is common to people who haven't travelled much. I have been involved in similar incidents with British Airways (three occasions), KLM (once) and Air France (twice). Yet, I will recommend British Airways to anyone anytime. The point here is that every Airline has that problem at one time or another. What the author has presented is a one sided story with no verifiable details. It is a shame that such articles can be published with impunity, knowing the damage it could do to the Airline business. No government transport authorities take air safety issues lightly. It would be better to direct that to them with relevant supporting evidence and come out to public gallery when that fails.

ELAWALO  # 6 | 29.12.2007 06:33

Hi Dele Please do us a favour and provide details of the filght i.e flight number and date etc for those who need them! In any case, whether this has happened on BA, KLM flights and their like, by our "well travelled VILLAGERS" is not the issue. What is pertinent is that, there is a problem with customer expectation management when it comes to our local airlines and our service sector in general!!!. I am sure many of us will have some awkard experience to share. Moving on very quicklly.... One can only hope that appropriate quality benchmarks can be established for the likes of BellView Airlines to follow, if the Bellview Management team are incapable of setting and meeting any quality standards. Just My View !! :rolleyes:

Enforcer  # 7 | 29.12.2007 07:59

=ELAWALO;4294976195>Hi Dele Please do us a favour and provide details of the filght i.e flight number and date etc for those who need them! In any case, whether this has happened on BA, KLM flights and their like, by our "well travelled VILLAGERS" is not the issue. What is pertinent is that, there is a problem with customer expectation management when it comes to our local airlines and our service sector in general!!!. I am sure many of us will have some awkard experience to share. Moving on very quicklly.... One can only hope that appropriate quality benchmarks can be established for the likes of BellView Airlines to follow, if the Bellview Management team are incapable of setting and meeting any quality standards. Just My View !! :rolleyes: ELAWALO The point in bold says a lot about your stand on this! None of us here is against quality services from our airlines. Bellview Airlines flies to London. I can assure you that the British aviation authorities will not certify Bellview to fly to London if they believe its safety standard is below the very rigorous British standard. I need to encourage them through constructive criticism

Dele4you  # 8 | 29.12.2007 09:39

Dear Sirs, (Elawalo and Enforcer) Let me start by agreeing with you; you are very right, there is no airline in the world which does not have problem at one time or the other. However what distinguished some from the others is the way they handled thier mechanical problems. Do they applogise... do they offer explanation... do they insist on going off into the air where there is no air but the cabin air for their passengers. It will also interests you that this incidence had happened since 9th of November. I wrote this little piece since the night of the 9th. It was only yesterday I decided to go into the public with it. My reason was because as you rightly pointed out ELAWALO, i explored options available; i approached the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority which has a branch that looks into complaints of dissatisfied costumers like this one of mine. I was certain that the matter will end there. But till now it keeps dragging. It will interests you that rather than taking up the challenge and inviting us all for discussions, they are still sending surface letters to me to provide one document or the other. My thinking is that they want to frustrate me. Enforcer, i am absolutely responsible for everything I wrote in that article. The administrators of the site trusts my judgments by allowing me to publish straight. If one day they realize that i am a fraudsters with sensational writing without substances, I am sure they will take me off. Again, if you look at the nature of my report, I was not condemning the airline without fairness. Look at the moral of my pieces. It is on the last page. I was asking some interesting questions that will enable one condemn or justify what Bellview did. Finally, the events details are; Flight: Bellview Air Date of flight: 09th November 2007 Time: 5.30 flight Lagos- Abuja. As we speak, Bellview has not refunded my money.

Enforcer  # 9 | 29.12.2007 10:22

=Dele4you;4294976226>Dear Sirs, (Elawalo and Enforcer) Let me start by agreeing with you; you are very right, there is no airline in the world which does not have problem at one time or the other. However what distinguished some from the others is the way they handled thier mechanical problems. Do they applogise... do they offer explanation... do they insist on going off into the air where there is no air but the cabin air for their passengers. It will also interests you that this incidence had happened since 9th of November. I wrote this little piece since the night of the 9th. It was only yesterday I decided to go into the public with it. My reason was because as you rightly pointed out ELAWALO, i explored options available; i approached the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority which has a branch that looks into complaints of dissatisfied costumers like this one of mine. I was certain that the matter will end there. But till now it keeps dragging. It will interests you that rather than taking up the challenge and inviting us all for discussions, they are still sending surface letters to me to provide one document or the other. My thinking is that they want to frustrate me. Enforcer, i am absolutely responsible for everything I wrote in that article. The administrators of the site trusts my judgments by allowing me to publish straight. If one day they realize that i am a fraudsters with sensational writing without substances, I am sure they will take me off. Again, if you look at the nature of my report, I was not condemning the airline without fairness. Look at the moral of my pieces. It is on the last page. I was asking some interesting questions that will enable one condemn or justify what Bellview did. Finally, the events details are; Flight: Bellview Air Date of flight: 09th November 2007 Time: 5.30 flight Lagos- Abuja. As we speak, Bellview has not refunded my money. Dele4you, I understand your frustration. I can assure you that I have enough experience of dealing with Airlines to last me a lifetime. I do not know the particular circumstances surrounding your case. My view is based the title and content of your article and the responses to it. These are what you have just said.......(1) the incident happened on the 9th November and (2) you have heard from them (3) asking you for more info and (4) you suspect they are going to frustrate you because they are using surface mail (?). The fact that you are very suspicious of them (Aviation authorities and Bellview) makes it more difficult for them to deal with your query. They would need as much information as it is required to deal effectively with your claim. This is not peculiar to Bellview. Your article was published on the 28th December. It was too soon to do that even by British standard of dealing with customer complains. I am not going to advise you to go to war with them. I prefer jaw-jaw to war-war. Like I said before your article should have been a last resort. That stage has not been reached yet for an incident that happened on the 9th November, taking into account the December rush and the fact that you did receive a response from them.

No Smoking  # 10 | 29.12.2007 10:45

@Dele4You, Your rejoinder states that you have contacted the NCAA at Abuja. What sort of documents are they demanding from you as evidence? I have no idea how the Bellview set-up tackles passenger complaints or comments, nor their process for organising fare refunds. However, publishing your article with such a title calls into question their right to life as an airline company. This smacks of revenge-seeking over what may not be more than a few thousand Naira owed to you.

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