Nigerian military engineers returned a twin-engine turboprop Dornier DO-228 to the air after it had been grounded for 23 years.
Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, Nigeria’s chief of air staff, commended the efforts of five engineers and 40 technicians who worked for four months on the project. “It is not just an operational gain, it is a testament to the Nigerian Air Force’s (NAF) commitment to self-reliance and resource optimization,” he said.
The plane previously was operated by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and had remained unused at a facility in Kaduna since 2001. The NAF now plans to use the plane for tactical airlift missions. The move comes after a presidential directive to transfer grounded platforms to the NAF for evaluation with the goal of bringing them back into service and decreasing reliance on imported aircraft.
The NAF has made a push to expand its fleet, adding 14 advanced aircraft in 2024, part of a three-year plan to add 64 planes. The country also has worked to return grounded planes to the skies, raising its serviceability percentage from about 34% in 2015 to about 84% in 2020, defenceWeb reported.
At the same time, the NAF has made strides in performing domestic inspections of its aircraft to keep its planes operating safely. In 2024, it conducted the first in-country 4,800-hour inspection of a DO-228 aircraft.
“Together, these milestones highlight the NAF’s growing capacity for advanced in-house aircraft maintenance and serve as a foundation for future projects aimed at achieving technical autonomy,” said Olusola Akinboyewa, NAF’s director of public relations.