In the afternoon of Wednesday, January 8, 2025, an Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Abuja was cancelled due to disruptive activities of an irate passenger, Ms Chiamaka Bonubani. On checking into the flight, Ms Bonubani and all other passengers were informed that some luggage will arrive on subsequent flights due to weight restrictions. But after boarding the flight and realizing that her luggage was among those that would come later, Ms Bonubani went very disruptive. She blocked the aisle of the plane, disrupted boarding and became very unruly, insisting that her luggage must be on the plane otherwise the aircraft would not depart. Airline staff, aviation security personnel, other passengers and the captains of the aircraft pleaded with her and assured her that her luggage would be delivered to her at home or wherever she chose, but Ms Bonubani refused to budge. She was also given the option to de board the plane, but she refused. I understand that executives of the airline left their offices and walked down to the tarmac to persuade her, all to no avail. She refused to shift ground. This holiday, the airline carried so many passengers to Uyo with many pieces of luggage; some of them were transiting to neighbouring states.
I was not on the flight, but I have seen videos of the incident and I have spoken to a few staffs of Ibom Air who were on duty that day. After a long standoff and when it was too late for the plane to take off (the airport does not operate dusk flights for now due to ongoing maintenance on the runway lightings), the airline cancelled the flight and the irate passenger was arrested by the police. The airline sustained huge losses as passengers had to be accommodated in hotels and rebooked on subsequent flights. Some of them who had international flights to catch in Lagos suffered extra inconveniences. Ms Bonubani has already been arraigned at the High Court in Uyo on serious charges and she will have to be in the court at every sitting to defend herself since this is a criminal case. If she’s convicted, a severe penalty awaits her. Good enough she’s a lawyer, according to statements she made. The costs of travelling to Uyo to attend her trial and other incidental expenses will knock sense into her head. For a start, Ibom Air has the right to blacklist her and refuse to carry her in future flights.
Airlines are used to deviant behaviours of some passengers, which mostly include drunkenness, refusal to sit on allocated seats or putting legs on the seats in front. In Nigeria, the commonest misbehavior is refusal or reluctance to switch off phones as instructed by cabin staff just before the flights take off. I have had cause on many occasions to shout at some passengers who refuse to switch off their phones as the plane is to about to hit the runway. Last year, one woman told me: ‘’Sir, but abroad, we don’t use to switch off our phones’’. Of course, it’s a lie, but I wasn’t ready for get into a conversation with her. I just snapped: ‘’Look, madam, when you get back to abroad, you can do as you please; in this country, we take our safety in the air seriously’’. She comported herself thereafter. But the behavior of Ms Bonubani is beyond pale. She took matters to the extreme, and she should be punished for it. Her prosecution will serve as deterrence to other ill tempered passengers who assume that air travel is the same thing as night bus journeys where all sorts of things happen in the dark.
I commend the two pilots on the aborted flight who showed considerable restraint and professional conduct in managing Ms Bonubani’s delinquency. I understand that it was the captain who disallowed security officials from forcefully carrying her off the plane, perhaps, to avoid escalation. But I can tell you that if this had happened overseas, no airline would have been that nice to her. She would have been chained, handcuffed, taken off and escorted by police dogs! Aviation has no room for unstable characters.
***Etim is a journalist and author.
