Okay as I am in Nigeria just now, I check on this story and it is true. Below is the information from Arik’s website.

Arik Air, Nigeria’s largest commercial airline today announced that the Boeing 737-700(New Generation) aircraft damaged by a taxi on the tarmac of Margaret Ekpo Airport, Calabar on Wednesday will be sent to Germany for thorough investigation.

According to Arik Air Acting Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, the aircraft, which belly was damaged by the taxi, is back safely at the airline’s hangar in Lagos after the Lufthansa Technic engineers had carried out ferry repairs on it in Calabar.

Mr. Ndulue elaborated: “We are now in the process of preparing the aircraft for the longer flight to Germany where Boeing and Lufthansa engineers will carry out a thorough check and repairs to determine the extent of damages. The engineers are expected to carry out a NDT tests on the aircraft and certify the aircraft on completion of the repairs.”

He said it was through providence and the high specification of Arik Air’s aircraft that the incident was not more serious. On the length of repairs of the aircraft in Germany, Mr. Ndulue said it is expected that the aircraft will be out of service for approximately 30 days.

He thanked all the people that identified with the airline over the incident and called on the Nigerian government to take necessary steps to ensure the safety of lives and equipment at the airports.

Exactly my point. Although as I mentioned on a previous post my travel through Lagos Airport on Friday night they seem to have jacked up abit with their security as everyone got scanned and frisked. No exceptions.

Oh and just another note. I saw the Delta crew there as well and apart from the one cabin attendant the rest looked over 50 and have been round the block a few times by the look of it.

My retirement project one day will be to acquire a carcass and turn it into a restaurant/pub such as some people have done with railway carriages. The cockpit would be restored as close as possible to reality. There is a Shackleton in South Africa that has been retired to the roof of a Service Station, which is quite a well known landmark. Used to be a Viking, but the SAA museum traded the Shack for it. At least the plane can rest in dignity.

Is that the one between Southgate Mall & Eldorado Park. Painted in the blue and yellow of Sasol

Hi guys back after a long long break, but anyway has to be Airfrance, flew them Edinburgh to Johannesburg via Paris. Edinburgh flight was good but the problems started in Paris. The flight was over booked plus they were still trying to get people on that were bumped of the flight the night before. Cabin crew were rude and not interested. Food was poor etc plus suitcase never arrived in SA untill 3 days after we did.Wont fly them again

Hi Kev great to hear from you again. I havn’t yet got my roster for Feb but I’ll let you know if I get a JNB! These days the JNB is mostly on the A346. All A346’s have Upper Class Suite, Premium Economy and Economy 3 class layout.

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Good to hear from you again. I am supposed to be flying the following
03FEB JNBLHR
17FEB LHRJNB

So if you get any of them give me a shout. If so do I get a flight deck visit?
Also last I saw about 2 weeks ago they were still using the A340-300 although believe me I would rather fly the A340-600. I will take my camera with and post pictures when I am in the UK as Internet over here is poor.