NAF reviews safety strategies for enhanced air operations

The need to continually review and evaluate key safety strategies affecting Nigerian Air Force (NAF) operations while ensuring that the Service remains a credible reference point for maintenance of high safety standards was at the forefront of discussions at the just concluded 2021 NAF Safety Review Board (SRB) meeting.

The meeting, which was held at the MD Umar Blue Room, at NAF Headquarters Abuja, afforded the Service the opportunity to take stock and appraise its safety practices and procedures for enhanced operational effectiveness and efficiency.

In his remark during the meeting, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, disclosed that as a highly technical Service operating sophisticated aircraft, equipment and military hardware, flight safety should be inherent in NAF’s daily activities.

He stated that the meeting focused on the steps taken by various NAF units towards addressing safety issues highlighted by the standing NAF Safety Audit Committee set up earlier in the year to chart a way forward in maintaining high safety standards in aircraft operations.

Amao further emphasised that the meeting served as a veritable platform for addressing all safety concerns so as to proffer realistic and lasting solutions to flight safety issues.

According to the CAS, “overall, the meeting must be geared towards making the NAF a safer, more effective and efficient instrument of national power.”

While commending all NAF personnel for maintaining high safety standards, the CAS enjoined members of the SRB to explore ways of ensuring the sustenance of high safety standards in the conduct of NAF air operations.

Earlier, the Chief of Standards and Evaluation (COSE), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Olusegun Philip, stated that the SRB, as the designated safety management body, is primarily tasked with appropriating safety policies and guidelines for the entrenchment of a safety culture in the NAF.

He also disclosed that so far, about 100 NAF personnel have undergone various safety courses within and outside the country in the last six months.

According to him, efforts were on to collaborate with the United States Air Force to organise an in-country safety management training for more NAF personnel before the end of the year.

Philip further stated that training activities at the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Safety, which were hitherto suspended following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, would soon resume with new courses to broaden the scope of safety education in the NAF.

He thereafter urged members of the Safety Review Board to continue to support all safety activities across the entire NAF strata through effective monitoring and evaluation.

The meeting had in attendance Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding, as well as NAF Safety and Evaluation officers, were drawn from NAF formations and units nationwide.