Leading domestic airline in Nigeria, Arik Air, is in the bad book again. After several allegations against the airline on issues bordering on theft which they have tried to sweep under the cover, the lid was blown open on Sunday, February 15, 2015 when three staffers of the airline were caught in the act.
The Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, on Monday said the ministry has arrested three Arik Air staff for stealing fuel from an aircraft.
Making the announcement on his official Facebook page, Chidoka said “the trio of Blessing Dugbe, Samuel Asuquo and Isaac Ajakaiye were arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, during a security patrol operation on Sunday at about around 3 a.m. The trios were stealing Jet A1 fuel from Arik Air plane, with registration number: 5N-MID into six jerry cans for sale at a cheaper price to other unsuspecting airline operators. It’s a development that has the capacity to threaten safety and security of airplanes. Meanwhile, the three (3) suspects were handed over to the Crime Investigation Bureau (CIB), AVSEC MMIA for further action,” Mr. Chidoka said.
He said considering the magnitude of the crime to the security and safety of airplanes, the chief security officer of the Lagos airport has been asked to ensure that the suspects are handed over to the airport police for adequate prosecution.
This is not the first time that Arik staffers are accused of theft. Passengers have often lamented the loss of one item or the other, ranging from iPad, jewelleries, money, clothes to perfumes aboard the airline’s flights.
A TEAM OF VICTIMS
When Elizabeth Nwafor booked an Arik Air ticket from Lagos to Johannesburg, South Africa, the last thing on her mind was being robbed en route her destination.
Ms. Nwafor went on a short vacation to Johannesburg on October 24, 2013. She boarded the Abuja– Lagos-Johannesburg flight with the airline using its Boeing 737-800 plane for the W3103 international flight.
Immediately she arrived Johannesburg and retrieved her briefcase from the luggage section, she noticed its lock had been broken.
On noticing the broken lock, Ms. Nwafor said she approached the Arik Air desk in Johannesburg to inquire if there was security check on her bag.
“When I picked up my luggage, I noticed that the padlock of my briefcase had been broken. So I went to the Arik desk in Johannesburg to file a complaint and find out what had happened; probably they must have broken it for security check although I did not see any sticker to indicate that,” Ms. Nwafor said.
To her surprise, the man on the desk informed her that there was no security check on her bag as such checks were not done by the airline in Johannesburg, and any such checks would have been done in Lagos.
However, he gave her a complaint form to fill; should she “discover any items missing from my suitcase.”
Ms. Nwafor reportedly decided to keep mum on the incident as she had no time to check through and be sure there were missing items in the bag.
“I wasn’t going to say anything about it,” she said. “But when we arrived in Lagos on our return flight, I boarded the shuttle bus with a number of people; about 20 of them and it turned out that nine had had the same experience and things were actually stolen from them.”
While Ms. Nwafor was lucky nothing was stolen from her bag, several other passengers on a similar flight three days later had worse experience.
Prince Sajere, who led a nine-member contingent, including the Miss Ambassador for Peace 2013, on a trip to Johannesburg said the flight was a very sad experience for his team.
He explained that having had his bag broken into and property stolen on a previous Arik flight, he only felt bad for the young women he travelled with as most of them were on that route for the first time.
“It was a sad experience. I led a team of beauty pageants from Lagos to Johannesburg on the October 27; the flight was by 10:45pm.
“Before we boarded the flight that very day, they called the attention of one of us that her bag was torn, immediately I saw it I knew it was Arik that tampered with it because one time I travelled with my family on Arik (Lagos to Johannesburg), they stole my iPad device.
Mr. Sajere said he asked the lady to check for any missing item in the bag. She didn’t because of her eagerness for the trip and because people had started boarding the plane.
The situation, however, worsened upon arrival in Johannesburg.
“Immediately we arrived, a particular girl started complaining that her iPad was gone from her bag. The girl that her bag was torn then realized that her clothes and jewelry were stolen; my perfume and shoes were also stolen from my bag. Every one of us had one or two things missing from our bags,” Mr. Sajere said.
Just like Ms. Nwafor, Mr. Sajere and his team complained to the airline’s desk in Johannesburg, but were referred to Arik Air’s headquarters in Lagos.
Mr. Sajere said that Arik Air officials in Johannesburg blamed their Lagos colleagues for the theft. They also told him that they had received many such complaints from Lagos passengers.
“We complained at Arik office in Jo’burg and they said we have to get back to Lagos to make a complaint, that it must be the Arik people from Lagos. They also said that a lot of complaints have been coming from their direction,” he said.
Any hope that Mr. Sajere and his team would get a redress at the Lagos office of the airline was dashed a few days later.
“Immediately I got to Lagos with the team, we went to the Lagos Arik office on November 1 (2013). I was speaking with the station Manager; a Yoruba guy, I can’t recall his name. He was nonchalant over our complaint and later two guys came as if we were in a court asking us what happened, when and how it happened and so on. Then they said we should go online to fill a form which can easily be denied and meanwhile there was no form online to be filled out,” he said.
When the team boarded the transit bus from the international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport to the local terminal, they realised they were not the only victims of the theft on the Arik flights, they met Ms. Nwafor and other passengers who suffered similar fate. All had returned on the same flight to Lagos from Johannesburg and shared their experiences.
“Immediately we boarded a transit bus in Lagos international airport to local, I was just trying to talk to the lady beside me about what happened,” Mr. Sajere said. “Immediately everybody started complaining about the same issues. It’s a pity that this happens here often, where our litigation doesn’t work, nobody cares.”
One of the members of Mr. Sajere’s team, Queen Irene, was too angered by the loss of her white mini-iPad that she declined to speak further on the matter.
Another passenger on the same flight, Etim Emoh, revealed that two pairs of shoes were stolen from his bag on another flight to Johannesburg.
“Arik Air inflight theft (Flight no. W3 151 @ 0700hr, 24th April, 2014.
I have always heard of in-flight theft especially onboard Arik flights. However, I never thought it is being cleverly carried out by the cabin crew until this fateful day, Thursday the 24th of April 2014. I was flying Arik Air first flight (7am) from Lagos to Abuja and was seated on seat no. 22C. I had my luggage hand-carried with my business bag; both were stowed in the overhead luggage compartment a row behind my seat due to lack of space in front.
The flight landed in Abuja ok. I reached for my bags and disembarked the flight to join my driver who was already waiting to take me to the office. On getting to the office, I opened the business bag and reached for my iPad (Spacy gray colored iPad mini with retina display, Wi-Fi + cellular, 128GB storage capacity). That was when I got the first shocker – my iPad was nowhere in my bag!
I was so sure I placed it in my business bag. In my confusion, I started thinking I forgot it in the hotel room in Lagos. This doubt was cleared up the moment I tried to search for it using the “Find my iPad” application on my phone in conjunction with my iCloud account. To my greatest surprise, it was located in Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, I searched again and same location popped up.
At this point, I left the office and headed back to the airport (Abuja), while still tracking the iPad on my iphone. Before I got to the airport, the iPad had already made four location changes still within the airport zone. While trying to track the exact point at the airport the iPad went offline and only re-emerged after about 50 minutes. However, this time it was tracked to Owerri airport. According to the tracker, the iPad remained at the tarmac (Owerri) for quite some time before it went offline again.
This only means that the iPad was removed from the bag while still onboard the aircraft by one of the cabin crew, most probably while pretending to arrange the overhead luggage compartment, since the iPad came with me from Lagos only to be stolen inflight yet it didn’t leave the Abuja airport before proceeding to Owerri the same day.”
We have tried calling Arik to give us a Manager (at the least) to speak with, or an official email address aside the customer services email address on their website to send an official petition but two customer services people (Foluke, and her immediate supervisor Samuel Sawyer) wouldn’t oblige, claiming their manager was not on seat and they couldn’t give an email address of any management staff beyond the general one on their website, which we know very well will not go further than the ‘junior’ staff, especially as this pertains to one of ‘their’ own.
I know if this gets to the right management staff, they would easily fish out who did this amongst their staff. There were 5 cabin crew members and these can easily be identified from the records.
Up until now, the person has switched off the Ipad as it hasn’t alerted to it being powered on since then. And, I am aware that my friend sent a message to the Ipad at a point while tracking it and he had become sure it was with a cabin crew member. The message stated that “this Ipad is stolen”. I (my opinion) believe this is why the thief hasnt put it on again – for now.
“I boarded this Arik Air flight from Abuja to Lagos 16th June, 2012 to connect an international flight. The flight scheduled to depart at 14:25 eventually left just around 15:00, which is a relatively good time considering the fact that delays of over 6 hours are the norm these days.
First off, we couldn’t find where to sit as the cabin crew informed us that it was ‘free sitting.’ I wondered why the order guaranteed with seat allocation was discarded for the chaos of “free sitting.” Most of the passengers were not pleased. During the flight, I read a book and discussed an article I was working on with my friend Azeenarh. She encouraged me to get started with the article already.
At this point I picked up my ipad to write, trying to imagine what happened in the last minutes of the Dana Crash. I had done some 500 words when the pilot announced that we were almost landing and all the routine of sitting upright, putting out electronic equipment meant that I had to stop using the ipad. I put the ipad in the seat pocket right in front of me.
On arrival in Lagos, I helped Azeenarh with her bag which was under the seat in front of her, while others in the usual style rushed to go out. We took our time and eventually alighted from the aircraft. When we got to Allen Avenue, I realised I had left my Ipad in the aircraft. We quickly dashed to the airport and we were fortunate to find out that the aircraft that brought us was still on ground.
We finally met one Lanre who was in charge of complaints as mine – “Lost and Found” is what they call it. “Lost and Gone” would be more apt based on my experience. His friend asked him in Yoruba if he had seen anything and he mumbled something which I didn’t hear. I didn’t like the fact that they were even speaking Yoruba in mumbled voices at this time and I told Azeenarh the comportment of the staff best compares with that of Lagos motor parks.
Lanre went and came back and said “they saw the ipad and put it inside your bag.” Of course that could not have happened. How could you have put an Ipad in my bag when the ipad was not tagged? How did you know which bag to put it in? While we were arguing about this, he left to attend to other passengers who had even more interesting complaints.
Mary Chen as stated earlier had travelled from Lagos to Abuja (Flight W3 155, 11:45 June 12, 2012) to lodge a complaint. She found out that her jewelleries (gold trinkets INCLUDING her wedding ring) inside her jewelry box had been stolen. She had checked this box in and it was obvious someone had found a way to open the bag, steal her jewelleries and left the bag as if nothing had happened. There were other people with complaints of theft as Mary noted when she made her complaint the first time.
Asked about making a report, the Arik Air staff with phone number 08077791490 (the official number for complaints such as mine and Mary’s) said there was no form to fill, there was no superior to talk to, and that just verbally telling him was enough. Essentially there was nothing to document the complaints.
Why should someone who made a report a week after he had lost something just as valuable as my ipad, have his lost good returned to him within minutes of asking and I who made my report within 90 minutes of forgetting my ipad has to force Arik Air to do the needful? Lanre said they found the ipad and put it in my bag; that established the fact that the ipad was at least found. Emirates found the camera and kept it in place for the owner who claimed it on his return journey a week after.
Arik Air found my ipad and claimed they had put it in my bag. The difference is why you can check in your luggage on Emirates airline and connect flights around the world and be sure they can be trusted to take care of even your lost good. With the other, your luggage is in danger on even a flight as short as Lagos – Abuja, even in a locked box like Mary’s.
I will be posting more reports on thefts such as this for now and would give special preference to Arik Air stolen goods reports.
The hashtag on twitter is #ArikAirWhereIsMyIpad”
“My hubby Mysteriously lost some money,about 200k when he boarded this same plane some years ago.
My bro left JFK on arik. He got to nigeria and realized some of his stuff were missing but shrugged thinking d guy who packed his stuff left them behind” – anonymous
“I have a personal experience. In 2009 i flew Arik air from lagos to Warri,
somehow i forgot i had a pair of scissors in my hand luggage which was spotted during scan.
The attendant requested i drop it before i can board. This wasn’t a big deal but I first had to almost empty my bag just to locate the scissors during which process i place certain items including my samsung camera on the desk. I foolishly let the dude assist me in getting my items back in my bag. That was the last time i saw the camera. It took me till last year to resume flying with Arik as i was seriously pissed.- anonymous
Funny enough while typing this reply, my boss narrated his own experience on how his pouch containing valuables and ID cards was lost when he flew Arik from Port Harcourt to Abuja and all efforts to locate the items proved a abortive”.- anonymous
“I know someone whose laptop was removed from her checked-in luggage, on Arik flight from Lagos to London. When she complained, Arik said she was not supposed to put valuables in check-in luggage”- anonymous
“Aha, thank God my stuff did not go missing but many got their suitcases opened and items stolen from them, even those with padlocks. This guy was so furious, lol, he had his brand new phones stolen (probably for work or family member)”.- anonymous