THE Nigerian carrier, Dana Air and the airline’s passengers have commended the integrity and professionalism of its security team on discovery of valuable items forgotten onboard its aircraft.

Dana Air Communications Manager, Mr Kingsley Ezenwa, made this known in a statement issued on Saturday in Lagos.

Ezenwa said Dana Air was not surprised by the recent commendations that the airline’s security team had been getting for their constant display of integrity and professionalism on and off the job.

“There have been many cases of lost and recovered items like phones, ipads, huge sums of money, Nigerian passports with valid visas and lots of valuable items.

“We have also returned a lot of missing foreign and Nigerian passports to the immigration, embassies and even sometime call the owners in the cases where we are able to track the passenger’s booking with authentic details.

“This is also one of the reasons we advise passengers to enter their correct details when booking,’’ he said.

Ezenwa noted that recently, a Dana Air passenger on flight from Abuja to Lagos left a bag containing 5,000 dollars and some other valuables.

According to him, on getting to Victoria Island, the passenger noticed he was not with the bag and dashed back to the airport, met the security team who confirmed the item was found.

Ezenwa said: “The passenger proved ownership of the item; completed necessary documents and got his missing items back immediately.

“He thanked the security team for displaying a high level of integrity and professionalism in handling an issue that involves hard currency.

“He also appreciated the staff for proving all the negative things they heard about Nigerians wrong. ’’

He said that another passenger, Mr Musa Anasemi, who forgot a Nigerian passport with a valid U.S. visa, said he did not have an idea where he left the passport.

Ezemwa said after about nine days, the passenger decided to check with the airline.

“He got his passport with gratitude and praises for the airline and the security staff that found the item and declared it.

“We carry out our due diligence in recruitment across board and have invested heavily in training and retraining of staff. We also try our best to keep staff happy in our little way and these are the results.

“We were also glad that our staff had been able to prove to the world that some of the things they heard about us around the world were actually not true.

“The safety, comfort and well-being of our guests will remain a top priority and we will continue to keep the flag flying,’’ Ezenwa said.

He noted that in 2018, Dana Air had 34 of its air passengers’ luggage missing with 32 of them recovered between January and December of same year, (NAN)

– Apr. 6, 2019 @ 15:45 GMT |