By Uzor Odigbo
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have struck a working synergy towards evaluating safety recommendations and ease of enforcement.
The collaboration, the organisations said, would further increase air safety in the country’s aviation industry.
In a statement by the General Manager, Public Affairs, AIB, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, quoting Commissioner of the Bureau, Mr. Akin Olateru, both agencies in Abuja jointly inaugurated an 11-man committee that would evaluate the NCAA’s response to safety recommendations issued by AIB on accidents, serious incidents and continuous operation of the State Safety Programmes (SSP) as well as ensuring the recommendations were implemented.
He also explained the committee would also consider any other areas of cooperation that would improve safety of aircraft operations in the country.
AIB chief declared that the committee would also coordinate activities in respect of aviation occurrences, respect for the mandate and responsibilities of each organisation, effective and efficient exchange of information and data amongst others.
Olateru, in the statement, also noted that both government agencies nominated five representatives each to the committee, while one representative was nominated by the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
The statement stressed further that the two agencies had worked together to ensure effective discharge of their duties in establishing and promoting higher levels of safety.
“These 11 Joint Committee members will collaborate in the review of NCAA’s responses to safety recommendations issued by AIB on accidents and serious incidents.
“The committee will see to the implementation and continuous operation of the State Safety Programmes in Nigeria and any other areas of cooperation that will enhance safety of aircraft operations in Nigeria,”
the statement further quoted.
Olateru to have stated that NCAA was in charge of regulating the industry, while AIB focuses on investigating serious incidents and accidents to promote safety of the industry.
Olateru also noted the readiness of AIB to cooperate and partner with other agencies and organisations in Nigeria and abroad to ensure continuous safe skies in Nigeria, West Africa and the world.
The Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, in his remarks, said the primary objective of establishing the committee was to ensure the enhancement of thorough coordination, collaboration and cooperation processes and public safety in aviation industry.
“Such coordination had been taking place between the authority and the bureau, although inconsistently and informally,” he said.
He maintained the initiative is a giant stride from both agencies performing their functions in terms of safety oversight and investigation of accidents and serious incidents.
Nuhu added that the collaboration is also with a view to determining probable causes as well as implement safety recommendations in a bid to prevent re-occurrence.
He stressed that it was expected safety and accident investigation experts would use the opportunity to map out strategies on how to review safety recommendations that had been proposed by the Bureau and the responses provided by the authority.
Nuhu noted that AIB and NCAA were saddled with the responsibility of the implementation of the SSP as well as emphasised that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs) Part 20 on Safety Management required that both authorities have access to appropriate information in the incident reporting system Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) and the Non-Punitive Reporting System to support the safety responsibilities.
According to him, “pursuant to the above, both authorities are striving towards establishing compatible software to enable the sharing of safety data and this also is part of the mandate of this committee.
“It is also important that this committee continuously reviews the requirements of the Nig. CARs and the implementation of responsibilities it assigns to the Civil Aviation Regulations (Investigations of Air Accidents and Serious Incidents.