Key players call for better partnership between NCAA, AIB

STAKEHOLDERS across the country’s aviation sector have again stressed the need for better collaboration between the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as the regulator and the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) for the purpose of allowing implementable accident safety recommendations aimed at ensuring flight safety.

At a breakfast meeting in Lagos organised by the Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTSI), a pressure group made up of different professionals to deliberate on the advantages of implementing safety recommendations, it was unanimously agreed that flight safety can only be guaranteed if lessons are learnt from previous accidents.

Speaking at the meeting, a former director-general of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, emphasised that accident reports and safety recommendations were not meant to apportion blame but to prevent reccurrence and promote air safety.

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He, however, noted that the AIB did not have the legal authority to impose the implementation of safety recommendations on the NCAA, and that the regulator must be given time to evaluate the report using risk base approach.

While adding that after thorough analysis, the report could be implemented partially or fully if it is the right one from the stand point of the regulator, Demuren used the occasion to speak on the AIB’s cold war with the NCAA regarding the  non- implementation of its safety recommendations which he said should not be allowed to degenerate as he said the responsibility of both Agencies centered on the promotion of aviation Safety and the continued confidence of travelers in the sector.

Demuren who disclosed that the implementation policies were not entirely successfully carried out, due to the fact that most of the policies had some unattainable implementation process, reiterated that the role of AIB was to determine probable cause of accidents, adding that AIB like the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have no legal authority to impose recommendations.

Equally, the pioneer Commissioner of AIB, Mr. Sam Oduselu speaking at the event called for effective communication between the agencies to consolidate on the safety records in the sector.

He emphasized that to achieve an implementable safety recommendations that the AIB must be given its full autonomy, adequate funding, the right tools and good renumeration for the staff to make it difficult for compromise.

According to Oduselu: “The stereotype is that investigators are compromised, but I believe investigators can’t be compromised anymore in this country. If you give autonomy, the autonomy must be allowed to work. We usually sit down together with NCAA to have recommendations. The unfortunate thing is that reports are written, but they are never in the public domain. The safety recommendations of AIB were written and ended up in the ministry. That is why it is necessary for AIB as autonomous body to go beyond the ministry.”