In a bid to further increase air safety in Nigeria’s aviation sector the Accident investigation Bureau AIB and the Nigeria civil aviation authority NCAA have formed partnership.
The agencies have inaugurated an 11 man committee that would review the NCAA’s response to safety recommendations issued by AIB on accidents, serious incidents and continuous operation of the state safety programmes SSP and ensure that the agency’s recommendations are implemented
General manager public affairs AIB Tunji Oketunbi in a release reports the AIB commissioner Akin Olateru as saying that the committee would also consider any other areas of cooperation that would improve safety of aircraft operations in Nigeria.
Olateru stated that the committee would also coordinate activities with regards to aviation occurrences, respect for the mandate and responsibilities of each organisation, effective and efficient exchange of information and data amongst others.
Olateru revealed that both government agencies nominated five representatives each to the committee, while one representative was nominated by the federal ministry of aviation
He said” These 11 joint committee members will collaborate in the review of NCAA’s response to safety issued by AIB on accidents and serious incidents
“The committee will see to the implementation and continuous operation of the state safety programmes in Nigeria and any other areas of cooperation that will enhance safety of aircraft operations in Nigeria ”
He emphasised that NCAA was in charge of regulating the industry while AIB focused on investigating serious incidents and accidents to promote safety of the sector
He stated that the agency is ready to cooperate and collaborate with other agencies and organisations, both in Nigeria and abroad, in ways that would ensure continuous safe skies in Nigeria, West Africa and the world.
On his part director general of Nigeria civil aviation authority NCAA Capt Musa Nuhu, said the primary objective of establishing the committee was to ensure enhancement of thorough coordination, collaboration and cooperation processes and public safety in aviation industry
He said such coordination had been taking place between the authority and the AIB, although inconsistently and informally.
He described the inauguration as a giant stride towards ensuring that the agencies perform their functions in the area of safety oversight and investigation of accident s and serious incidents with a view t determining probable causes, implement safety recommendations in order to prevent re-occurrence.
Nuhu stressed that it was expected that safety and accident investigation experts would have the opportunity to sit down together to review safety recommendations that have been proposed by the bureau and the responses provided by the authority.
He said the two authorities were vested with the responsibility of the implementation of the SSP
The NCAA DG also disclosed that the Nigeria civil aviation regulations Nig.CARs part 20 on safety Management required that both authorities have access to appropriate information in the incident reporting system Mandatory Occuurrence Reporting MOR and the non- Punitive Reporting system to support the safety responsibilities.
He stated that “Pursuant to the above, both authorities are striving towards establishing compatible software to enable the sharing of safety data and this is also part of the mandate of this committee
“It is also important that this committee continuously reviews the requirements of the Nig. CARs and the implementation of responsibilities it assigns to civil aviation regulations ( investigations of Air Accidents and Serious Incidents) he said
He urged the committee to continuously engage in ensuring the establishment of conclusions devoid of ambiguous interpretations that would ensure frictionless and seamless description of lines of responsibilities
“The committee will have to determine the detailed modality and methodology of implementation to ensure that there will be no compromise.
