Why Nigeria’s military needs aviation authorities during crashes

LAST week, Nigeria was thrown into a mournful mood over the crash of a military Beechcraft plane in Kaduna which claimed the lives of the country’s army chief, Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru and10 other top military officers including the crew.

According to information gathered, the unfortunate crash which happened on Friday, May 21, 2021 while the plane was attempting to land in bad weather, came just three months after another military aircraft crashed in Abuja also killing all the seven on board.

Going by the information available in the public domain, the country has witnessed 11 military plane crashes in the last six years which killed a whole 33 military officers.

Among the crashes recorded between 2015 and 2021 included the one involving a training helicopter, which crashed in the NAF Base in Enugu on November 14, 2019, the one involving A NAF helicopter which crashed in the process of landing while returning from an anti-banditry combat mission in the North-West Theatre under Operation Hadaran Daji in Katsina State, on June 12, 2019 and another one involving a NAF aircraft RV-6A Air Beetle that crashed near Kaduna, killing the pilot, an experienced instructor on August 17.

Agreed that plane crashes are not peculiar to Nigeria and while such crashes could have been caused by different reasons ranging from; human factors, mechanical failures, weather related problems, error by air traffic controllers and even ground workers, the fact remains that for the country to have witnessed so many military plane crashes within such a period of time only pointed to the fact that all is not well.

Prior to the latest crash, the general perception has been that no ‘bloody civilian’, not even the relevant Nigerian aviation authorities such as the Accident Investigation Bureau and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority have the capacity to talk about crashes involving military planes on the premise that such crashes are purely military affairs and yet people are dying.

Therefore, whenever military crashes occur in Nigeria, professionals across the sector including the AIB and NCAA are prohibited from talking even while these crashes have been killing the best military officers the country can boast of.

Obviously, the latest crash may have begun to pass the message to the country’s military establishments that they need even civilians in such critical areas of aircraft safety and security matters. There is need for collaborations.

While military matters are treated confidentially all over the world, it may, however not be out of place to seek cooperation with competent bodies like the AIB, the Nigeria’s organisation saddled with the responsibility of investigating accidents or incidents, which has done creditably well in the past five years.

Owing to the records of the military crashes and the number of casualties, it is obvious that there are some anomalies rocking the country’s military components precisely, which may have hindered it from carrying out the required maintenance on the planes in the fleet of the Nigerian Air Force.

Again, the anger and worries the latest crash have elicited became manifested in the doubts raised over the probability of the military arm of government already struggling with credibility to conduct a fair investigation on the cause of the crash and make amends towards preventing recurrences.

As terrible as the situation is, the good news is that for the first time the military has reached out to the AIB to join in investigating the cause of the crash which has only attested to the fact that things are getting out of control.

AIB and Nigerians must definitely be ready for a deep shock as this latest crash may reveal the rot in the system which may have contributed to the inability of the security establishment to carry out the adequate maintenance on its fleet or even replace the old planes.

It is almost certain that the report of the latest crash like the past ones may not see the light of the day because of the rot and many inadequacies in the system that if allowed, may expose the high level of complacency in critical areas of maintenance culture on the aircraft flying the Nigerian military personnel around.

At this juncture the hitherto notion that military matters should be left for the military may not work this time around as those who have died in the military crashes are Nigerians with families. Therefore, the report of the cause (s) of the crash should not be treated in secrecy in view of the various allegations of diversion of funds meant for critical projects like aircraft maintenance flying around.

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