Experts urge stakeholders’ support on safety of air travel

Globally some air mishaps cannot be averted, especially when it has to do with weather conditions that may not give enough notice before it occurred.

However, experts in the aviation industry have maintained that air accidents can as well occur due to human errors or shortage of qualified personnel in the air transport sector.

According to them, air travel is still comparatively safe way to travel, stressing that; people are about six times more likely to die in car crash than plane crashes.

Speaking with the Guardian on air crash causes and possible prevention of reoccurrences, an aviation expert, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd) said that some of the air mishaps can be averted if the airline sector and the regulatory authority charged with making sure that an flight is safe for the Nigerians, would apply with safety recommendations.

He cited that Bristow Helicopters Limited has been recording reoccurring crashes, which the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority need to, find out the cause and probably review their air operation.

He pointed that when the cause of an accident is unknown, how do you prevent future reoccurrence. “You can only avert accidents, when you know the cause or causes”, Ojikutu noted.

According to him, the issue of the scarcity of aviation fuel over the years has been a problem in Nigeria. He said that because of fuel scarcity, some of the marketers now sell kerosene as aviation fuel (Jet A1) to the airlines, or using kerosene tanker to carry aviation fuel, which contaminates the fuel by causing problem in the engine of the aircraft and that may cause accident.

Speaking further, he stressed that inaccurate information by control tower, lack of qualified pilots instructors and improper certification of radio operators; poor supervision of imported aircraft into the country, among others can cause air accidents.
Ojikutu also stated that some pilots are not given frequent training, adding that the industry must cultivate the culture of training and retraining the pilots and personnel to avert some of the avoidable accidents.

Meanwhile, stakeholders in a recent aviation forum believed that if the Federal Government and the airport authorities could ensure that all aircraft in the country were properly monitor so as to prevent future reoccurrence.

They advised that all the domestic and international airports in the country should have facilities for aircraft maintenance and certification of airworthiness.

The aircraft engines need regular checks, while the runways of airports ought to be resurfaced and sanitised, as part of efforts to avoid air crashes, the experts noted.
However, stating that most aviation mishaps in the country were somewhat a replica of previous ones, they stressed the need for aviation investigators to ensure that the factors behind air mishaps were duly rectified to avoid the recurrence of the accidents.

Also speaking on the issue, the General Manager/Public Relation, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr. Samuel Adurogboye stated that the no two accidents have same cause[s], stressing that there are always various degrees of contributing factors, which are normally captured in the accident report on each one that had happened as released by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB).

According to him, common contributing factor[s] to air mishaps that have occurred in Nigeria include; adverse weather, human factors, mechanical or engine malfunction or failures among others.

On how to avert air mishaps in the country, he maintained that all hands must be on deck to improve the safety of air travel in Nigeria.

His words: “the industry made up of government, airlines, aviation agencies, NCAA/regulators, aviation workers unions, aviation journal, flying public would all have to work together for safe flight operations to be enthroned.

“Particularly in areas of recruitment of skilled and qualified personnel in sufficient numbers, training and re- training of staff, adequate attention to maintenance and ensuring that it is done as at when due.

“There should be adequate insurance, effective oversight and regulation, good policy, adherence to international standards as prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). If due attention is paid to all these in our nation, air accident will be reduced to barest minimum if not eliminated”, Adurogboye noted.

Speaking further, he said that sentiment and emotions does not stop accident[s], pointing that: “it is careful and effective implementation of the above listed issues by all concerned put together that can help in the realisation of safer skies in Nigeria”.

Adurogoye, who said that NCAA is on course, added that; “we carryout effective oversight of the industry. The authority views violation of safety regulations seriously. Only aircraft that are air worthy are allowed to operate. We ensured that there is no room for unqualified personnel in aviation sector.

He said: “We carryout daily inspection of operating aircraft at the ramp in all our airports. We do surveillance. We monitor maintenance of aircraft in operation in Nigeria”.
However, he stated that having aviation personnel in sufficient numbers is a challenging to all countries of the world, noting that Nigeria is not immune from this.

“Having said that, what we have been doing and urging all other stakeholders to embrace is more employment of required manpower and training and re-training of personnel. This is being done proactively so as not to be caught up with the challenge of aging workforce”.

“Remember, Nigeria today is a category one nation. We are ICAO compliant. All these are attained by NCAA through commitment to enforcement of compliance to safety regulations”, Adurogboye added.