A co-pilot, David Bernard, and a cabin crew member, Maduneme Victory, have rejected a report of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau which claimed that they tested positive for alcohol and a hard drug.
The accident investigators had tested the pilot and the crew member positive for alcohol and marijuana after a plane they flew was involved in a runway incursion on Sunday, July 13, 2025.
The Air Peace aircraft had veered off the runway while landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
The NSIB revealed that the aircraft touched down 2,264 metres from the runway threshold, well beyond the recommended touchdown zone, and eventually came to a stop at 209 metres into the clearway.
While all on board disembarked safely, the incident raised immediate safety concerns.
An aircraft incursion is the wrongful or unauthorised positioning of an aeroplane at the runway. Incursions are most caused by miscommunication, mistakes, faulty gear and potholes on runways, among others.
The NSIB preliminary report, signed by the Director of Public Affairs and Family Assistance at Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, Mrs Bimbo Oladeji, and made available to our correspondent on Friday, said toxicological test results conducted on the flight crew turned out positive.
The tests indicated the presence of alcohol in the system of the crew, while another crew member also tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active compound found in cannabis, colloquially referred to as “India hemp.”
The indicted airline staff, who spoke on Friday during an interview on Arise Television, accused the NSIB of conducting questionable tests at an unregistered centre to smear the image of the airline.
The co-pilot Bernard insisted that he does not take alcohol and drugs.
“I don’t drink and secondly, we are in 2025, if you are trying to do an alcohol and blood test, we have something called the breathalyser, where you have to do your test right there. You blow in your breathe into the breathalyser. It checks the amount of alcohol in your system.
“But these guys at the Port Harcourt Airport took our blood samples and urine on the 13th and then, they are coming back on the 23rd of July with the result. I mean, how long does it take for a result to be out?
“We are in 2025 and we paid a lot of money for this flying school. You can’t just jeopardise somebody’s image, telling me I take alcohol. I didn’t see it in your presence. You took the test out to a non-aviation recognised hospital. So, it doesn’t make any sense at all. I don’t drink or smoke,” he said.
The co-pilot noted that the airline usually conducted random tests on crew members, which always made them avoid anything that could put their jobs at risk.
Also, faulting the test result, Victory described the development as an attempt to smear the image of the airline. She threatened to take legal action the agency if it did not withdraw the report.
“This is really very bad. This is pure defamation of character. I don’t know if our report and test should be shown because the world needs to see this and NSIB needs to come and actually clear this thing. We just woke up this morning and all this news is flying around. I wish we could just pursue this and let the world see that this is our test result and nothing is found in our system. These are all lies.”
However, the Director-General of the NSIB, Captain Alex Badeh, dismissed the allegations.
Badeh, while sympathising with the workers, said such reactions were expected from people in the eye of the storm.
He said, “We have heard them say it is a smear campaign against the airline. But I must point out that this is not our first preliminary report we’ve published. We have published countless. So, it is a little surprising to suddenly hear that it is a smear campaign against Air Peace. NSIB does not conduct test. This was done by the River State Hospital Management but it is an official test. They got tested, urine and blood and the report came out the next day, on the 14th, the crash happened on the 13th. So, the report was with us but we had to investigate other things.”
