Chinedu Eze
The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu has restated the commitment of the regulatory agency to work effectively with other service providers to ensure that the Nigerian airspace is safe and that airlines operate airworthy aircraft in order to sustain and improve on existing safety record.
No accident involving scheduled airliner has been recorded in Nigeria since 2013 after the ill-fated Associated Aviation Flight 361, which crashed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, killing 15 persons on board.
Nuhu said the high safety record would be sustained when there is synergy among industry stakeholders, aviation agencies and airlines, adding that the industry had only recorded one accident with fatalities in the last five years with the Quorum Helicopter crash of 2020, which killed three crew members on board.
To reduce the high rate of human errors in air accidents in the Nigerian aviation industry, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB-N) in partnership with the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) is organising one-day conference. The conference, which will be held physically and virtually, is scheduled to hold on January 15, 2021, in Lagos, with the theme: ‘Preventing Human Factors in Accident Occurrences.’
No fewer than 300 industry stakeholders such as airline operators, airport operators, investigators, safety inspectors, pilots, engineers and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) are expected to participate in the event.
Due to the Covid-19 protocols and the guidelines set out by the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on Covid-19 and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), physical participation is limited to only 80 guests, while others would join the conference virtually through the Zoom network.
Commissioner of AIB, Akin Olateru (left) and Director-General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, at the commissioning of the 11-man committee in Abuja
Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria, in partnership with the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), will be meeting to chart a path to reducing human errors in air crashes.
Commissioner of AIB, Akin Olateru, said that no fewer than 75 per cent of air accidents occur due to human factors. Some of the human factors, according to him, include inadequate training for technical personnel, poor facilities, fatigue and poor communication between the cockpit and the control tower, among others.
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Published 25 December 2020
“Our country of the year award is for improvement. The places that climb furthest are often those that started near the bottom, poor, ill-governed and unstable”
– The Economist, December 2019.
The year, 2020, currently lumbering towards a terminus, is evidently a year that will be long remembered for its bitter harvest of sorrow and tears, and for game-changing experiences for nations and the global community. The puzzling downturn, the sense of proximity to Apocalypse, ought therefore to have moderated our inevitable end of year euphoria, celebrated in frivolous awards of all stripes. But not us. Like an inexorable roll call, the noise and celebration of the awards filled the public space. Banker of the year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Best Governor of the Year were rolled out among other highfalutin titles.