AIRCRAFT REGISTRATION

Hello and welcome to the blog!

In today’s post, we are going to be discussing aircraft registers; which preconceives that there would have been a purchase of an aircraft and an application made to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority for proper documentation as prescribed by the enabling registration.

(You can also refer to a previous post on the licensing and registration requirements in Nigeria).

A person who wishes to register an aircraft in Nigeria shall apply to the authority for aircraft registration by submitting a duly completed prescribed application form: AC-AWS 001A to the authority. Registration acceptance application is accepted only for aircraft of a type that is acceptable to the authority. Refer to the technical library of the NCAA for further instructions.

Under Part 2 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, an aircraft is eligible for registration in Nigeria if it is owned by a citizen, permanent resident, corporation doing business in Nigeria, a Nigerian government entity or has been leased to one of the aforementioned. The aircraft must not be registered under the laws of any other state and must not be more than 22 years old, subject to an exception for aircraft used exclusively for general aviation purposes. A person wishing to register an aircraft must submit an application with supporting documents to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

Every civil aircraft must be marked prominently on its exterior by an alphanumeric string, indicating its country of registration and its unique serial number. This code must also appear in its certificate of registration, issued by the relevant National Aviation Authority. An aircraft can only have one registration in one jurisdiction. This is also in line with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention). Most countries also require the registration identifier to be imprinted on a permanent fireproof plate mounted on the fuselage in case of a post-fire/post-crash aircraft accident investigation.

There is no register of aircraft mortgages, encumbrances and other interests. The regulations provide that the authority must establish and maintain Legal Interests in Aircraft Registry, which for each aircraft registered in Nigeria, lists proprietary rights, interests, liens and other dealings. However, there is no such registry as yet. Such interests can be registered when applying for registration.

As Nigeria is a party to the Geneva Convention (Convention on the International Recognition of Rights in Aircraft 1948) and the Cape Town Convention (Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment 2001), all rights of property in aircraft and mobile equipment and other interests are recognized.

On completion of the evaluation of a successful document, the airworthiness inspector issues the aircraft acceptance for registration. No aircraft shall be registered without a registration acceptance note issued by the authority.

                                            

What rules and procedures govern the detention of aircraft?

Most often, aircraft are registered in the jurisdiction in which the Carrier is resident or based. Carriers in emerging markets may be required to register aircraft in an offshore jurisdiction where they are leased or purchased but financed by banks in major onshore financial centres. The financing institution may be reluctant to allow the aircraft to be registered in the carrier’s home country ( either because it does not have sufficient regulation governing civil aviation, or because it feels the courts in that Country would not cooperate fully if it needed to enforce any security interest over the aircraft), and the carrier is reluctant to have the aircraft registered in the financier’s jurisdiction (often the united states or the United kingdom) either because of personal or political reasons or because of fear of spurious lawsuits and potential arrest of the aircraft.

Section 27(3) of the Civil Aviation Act gives the "Authority the power to take all steps reasonably necessary, including the power to ground any aircraft in order to ensure compliance with the Act."


Section 52 provides for detention of a foreign aircraft on the basis of" infringement of certain intellectual property entitled to protection in Nigeria until the owner makes a deposit."

The tribunal and the procedure is set by the Minister of aviation.

Pursuant to the specific power granted under Section 53 of the act, Rule 1.3.3.4 of the regulations provide that an "Aircraft which is involved in a violation for which a civil penalty has been imposed or may be imposed on its owner or operator may be subject to detention by the Authority in accordance with its enforcement procedures."

Schedule 5 of the Act incorporates the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, which recognizes (Article 39) on the right of a State entity, inter-governmental organization or any other private provider of public services to arrest or detain an object under the law of that state for payment of amounts owed to such entity, organization or provider, directly relating to those services in respect of that object or another object.

What rules and procedures govern aircraft safety and maintenance?

Part 2 of the Regulations provides for personnel licensing requirements for maintenance engineers, while Part 3 regulates approved training for maintenance personnel. Part 5 prescribes regulations on airworthiness, as well as aircraft maintenance and inspection.  

Under Part 5, all aircraft registered in Nigeria or operating within Nigeria must receive a certificate of airworthiness on application to the authority. Aircraft that are not airworthy are ineligible for operations. Part 5 also includes requirements for maintaining an aircraft in an airworthy condition. Persons are prohibited from performing maintenance, preventive maintenance or modifications on an aircraft other than as prescribed in the regulations. Certain failures, malfunctions and defects must be reported by owners or operators of aircraft to the authority. All aircraft must be maintained in accordance with an approved maintenance programme. The regulations also regulate persons authorized to perform inspections and require the keeping of maintenance and inspection records in a prescribed form. Part 6 provides for the registration and monitoring of approved maintenance organizations in Nigeria.

NCAA shall notify the CAA of the country of registration about the aircraft’s operation in Nigeria, after which, they shall meet and sign an agreement for the safety oversight of the aircraft which should be facilitated by the operator. In addition, details of a failure, or any incident (including foreign body ingestion into the engine), which requires unscheduled maintenance action. In case of incidents or accidents occurring which require investigation while the aircraft is operating in Nigeria, the state shall participate with its representatives on the investigation committee, in accordance with the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.

During the course of fact-finding, relevant information was obtained from the public website of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority. Please note that this information is subject to change.

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