Capt. Donald Tonye Spiff
Capt. Donald Tonye Spiff was born on the 27th of January, 1953 in Calabar to Erasmus and Margret.
He was awarded a scholarship to Canada to study piloting by t h e Rivers State Govt. He later transferred to the Northrop University in California, USA and graduated with a Bachelor of science degree (BS) in Aerospace Technology and a full commercial pilot's license with Instrument Rating and multi engine ratings in 1977.
He returned to Nigeria in 1978 and joined Nigeria Airways and rose to the rank of Captain, Boeing B737 in 1987, before leaving the country again to join another airline, Gulf Air, Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf where he worked for 25years flying different types of the most modern aircraft including the LIOII, B767, Airbus A340 &the A330 as a Captain.
He retired from Gulf Air in 2013 after attaining age 60 but was contracted by Guinness Peat Aviation and was sent to Pakistan to conduct training for an airline, Shaheen Air that had just acquired three Air Bus A330- 300. He spent 17 months in Pakistan before retiring again from flying.
He joined the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority at the end of Sept, 2015 as a Flight Operations Inspector and rose to be the General Manager, Operations in July 2020 until he was appointed the Director Operations, Licensing and Training standards on 21st December 2023.
Capt. Spiff is a qualified IOSA Operations Auditor and has conducted Audits on Airlines worldwide. He is a member of a few social clubs and was the Chairman of his Class Set of CMS Grammar School for the last six years, only to give it up in January, 2024 due to his relocation to Abuja and the work load in the NCAA.
He is the traditional Chief in Ada-Ama (Spiff Town), Twon-Brass with the title Chief Nicholas.
He is married with children.
