Facts have emerged on how the N600 million metallurgical science laboratory built by the Accident Investigations Bureau (AIB) in Abuja to cater for critical analysis of aeroplanes during crashes rots away more than eight years after the facility was constructed.
Making this disclosure was the Commissioner of AIB, Akin Olateru when the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation visited the bureau as part of the Committee’s oversight inspection tour of the aviation sector in Lagos.
This is just as the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji has commended Olateru and his team for the huge jobs, he said, they have done in the last two years to bring accident investigations in Nigeria at par with what is obtained in advanced countries.
Olateru, while describing the abandoned laboratory as the Bureau’s weakest link, lamented how the facility had not been put to use for long because of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line that passed through the laboratory.
According to the AIB Commissioner, a metallurgical science laboratory allows the Bureau to examine metals to determine the structure of a damaged part or parts of aircraft to determine cause or causes of a crash or crashes.
“This is the advanced stage of accident investigation where you want to determine the state and condition of the material. Some material failures can be examined in this laboratory to ascertain the failure of the metal; was it before the accident or by the impact of the accident”, Olateru added.
The agency recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Universities of Lagos (UNILAG) and Ilorin on the use of its metallurgical laboratory at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
Signing the agreement in Lagos, Olateru said the laboratory was to the benefit of Nigeria, students of higher institutions of learning and industries in the country.
The MoU, Olateru said would save Nigeria huge capital flights that would have been expended on air tickets, hotels and others by researchers, adding that collaborations enhance mutual benefits.
He appealed to the House of Representative Committee to assist the Bureau in obtaining more funds, saying the Bureau needed more funding to carry out its statutory responsibilities even as he stressed that it does not generate money but mandated to fund all accident and incident investigation.
The Committee Chairman, in his remarks promised to assist AIB realise its objective of safer airspace through funding of its projects.
His words: “We will do everything possible to support AIB. Your agency is extremely doing well. We are impressed with your capacity building for other nations.
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