AIB remembers 2,038 crash victims

ACCIDENT Investigation Bureau (AIB) Commissioner, Mr Akin Olateru has described multimodality as the widely acceptable future of Transport Accident Investigation across the globe.

Speaking at the International Day for the Commemoration of Air Crash victims and their families in Abuja, in line with the mandate of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the annual remembrance and honour of crashed victims, survivors and their families, Olateru described the multimodality policy as a transition that had always emanated from the extant Air Accident Investigation Agency.

Emphasising how the bureau had been successful in her mandate and formed a solid foundation for this transition, Olateru used the opportunity to highlight one major significance of the multimodal bill recently passed by the National Assembly that will eventually broaden the scope of the bureau in not only reporting air crashes but including road, rail and maritime accidents to providing the legal framework that will empower it to execute a more robust and effective family assistance programme for crash victims and their families.

While calling on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to put in place

effective policies and regulations that will mandate airline operators in the country to have Family Assistance Plans as part of their emergency plan or procedure, the AIB Commissioner declared how the Bureau had already provided family assistance in the recovery of personal effects of victims, identification of bodies, provision of information on accident Investigations, and pathological services, amongst others.

“I believe that irrespective of the scale of an accident, the victims and their families should receive appropriate and timely assistance. Assistance programmes, in support of aircraft accident victims and their families, require cooperative planning and response by the air operator, State of Occurrence, non-governmental organiasations, and specialised commercial companies.

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Besides urging the NCAA to put in place effective policies and regulations that will ensure family assistance plans as part of emergency plans, Olateru tasked the regulatory body to also ensure that such assistance programmes were supervised, exercised and audited appropriately.

While commiserating with families of the 2,038 victims of air crashes that Nigeria had recorded between 1969 to date, the AIB Commissioner offered his “deepest sympathy to all the survivors and families of victims of past incidents. I am truly sorry for your losses, and I know that no one can ever adequately compensate you.”

Acknowledging the fact that the aftermath of an Air incident could be devastating to survivors, crash victims and their families, as they all require support and empathy, Olateru assured that  the industry regulators and relevant authorities were committed to offering significant support but even more so to preventing the recurrence of these incidents.

He attributed the reduction in accident rates so far recorded to several activities including investigations by the bureau and their safety recommendations, voluntary safety reporting, safety cultures, and Safety Management Systems (SMS).

In Civil Aviation, Safety always comes first. Aviation safety is important because there are lives involved in every operation of an aircraft. A significant decrease in accident rates has been recorded through several activities including investigations and their safety recommendations, voluntary safety reporting, safety cultures, and Safety Management Systems (SMS) saying “In Civil Aviation, Safety always comes first. Aviation safety is important because there are lives involved in every operation of an aircraft.”

Describing air transport as the safest means of transport despite accidents, he further added: “The reality is that, though quite devastating when involved in an incident, Air transportation is still the safest and quickest mode of transportation, today.”

He listed the economic benefits of air transport which cuts across various fields of business, tourism, medicine and even the military to include: sustainable development that has brought countries closer together, opening of opportunities which were once limited to the imagination and the only rapid worldwide transportation network and a major contributor to global economic prosperity which makes it an indispensable means of transport.”