Barely one year after the nation lost over 200 persons in two fatal air disasters, Nigeria yesterday witnessed another air tragedy in which an ADC Airline Boeing 737 aircraft crashed five minutes after taking off from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. Of the many prominent Nigerians on board the aircraft, only seven persons survived the crash. Like in previous incidents, the world has risen to condemn the Nigerian system even though air disasters are not peculiar to any particular part of the world.
Many will blame it on the rain; some will blame the thunderstorm a few others may blame it on tokunbo planes; while some persons will link it to some spiritual battles in the skies. Don�t even be surprised if some Nigerians with their weird interpretation of events link it with the so-called failed third term and the political permutations ahead of 2007.
Jolted by the spate of fatal air mishaps in the nation�s airspace last year, President Olusegun
Obasanjo approved a number of radical reforms in the aviation sector. This was after he had lashed out at all the parastatals under the aviation ministry lampooning them as dens of corruption and threatened to hire expatriates to man the parastatals if competent Nigerians were lacking.
Prominent among these was the transfer of the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) of the Ministry of Aviation to the Presidency. Under the new reforms regime, the Bureau was made an autonomous agency answerable to the Presidency.
President Obasanjo also tinkered with the idea of granting full autonomy to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to free the institution from the shackles of bureaucracy and enhance its performance.
The measures were part of the fallout of a stakeholder�s forum held in the wake of the repeated air crash incidents that visited the aviation industry towards the tail end of 2005.
First it was the Bellview air crash in which a total of 111 passengers and six crewmembers lost their lives at Lisa village, Ifo, Ogun State. The presidential reforms were also accompanied by some in-house cleansing in the Aviation Ministry as many believed that the Industry had become a cesspit of unbridled corruption.
As part of the reforms, President Obasanjo approved a round the clock (24-hour, 7-days) terminal radar services for all the airports
In the country; a comprehensive audit of all Installations and maintenance of landing aircraft including instrument landing system, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), and Very High Omni-Directional Radio Range.
The equipment update was meant to forestall a situation where planes fly the nation’s skies at avoidable risks because relevant agencies are ill equipped to respond to emergencies and avert disasters.
Other highlights of the reforms include; installation of communications equipment in all operational airports to enhance flight safety, rehabilitation of existing runways and the erection of perimeter fence at all the airports in the country, as well as full fire coverage through the provision of standard and servicable fire fighting equipment at all airports.
Minister of Aviation, Professor Babalola Borishade, THISDAY learnt, was given matching orders to ensure the immediate implementation of the presidential reforms while a Presidential Task Force was also set up to ensure immediate implementation of the some critical decisions of the aviation stakeholders forum.
The stakeholders forum, coordinated by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Aviation Matters, Captain Shehu Iyal had among other demands, proposed the granting of custom duties waivers on all aircraft spares, engines and equipment; a comprehensive safety and management audit of all operating airlines in the country to reassure the flying public that it is still safe to fly, the initiation of process of airline mergers and acquisition, joint ventures and special purpose vehicles for the purpose of reliable and competitive operation, and the initiation of processes to facilitate and guarantee intervention fund for the aviation industry. Industry sources disclosed that the Aviation Minister, ordered the auditing of all the parastatals in the ministry. The sum of N90 million has been paid to out to a Lagos-based auditing firm for this purpose. The Minister has also placed orders for scanning machines for the nation�s domestic airports.
A Technical Committee was also set up to undertake a technical audit of airlines and aeroplanes plying the country�s air routes to ascertain their air worthiness. The technical committee was headed by Mrs Forishade Odutola, Rector, Nigeria Collage of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
In spite of these reforms, Nigeria has witnessed at least four vfatal air crashes in the last one year. It is therefore doubtful if the reforms were actually carried out after the hue and cry that b greeted the incidents of last year.
Minister of Aviation, Prof Babalola Borishade blamed the frequent air crashes on the use of outdated planes and air navigational equipment in the industry. He admitted that the aviation industry in Nigeria operates with obsolete equipment, a situation that makes it difficult for the relevant agencies in the industry to respond to emergencies and even monitor routine operations at the airports and along designated air routes in the country. The problem of outdated equipment, the Minister said, was compounded by the near dearth of the much needed highly trained manpower in an environment that is not only highly technical but dynamic given the fast pace of technological changes across the global aviation industry.
According to the Minister, the industry faced serious challenges due to the recent incidents of air mishaps including the ill fated Bellview plane crash in which all the 117 passengers and crew members on board perished.The problems in the industry, he said , needed to be tackled urgently if the industry must achieve its set goals and targets to the Nigerian public.
” On my assumption office, I undertook a familiarization tour of some Aviation formations around the country and what I was confronted with was an industry that was operating with obsolete equipment. I also observed that the agencies did not have a viable equipment replacement programme that could sustain their operations”, the Minister stated.
He explained that the greatest challenge in transforming and sustaining the aviation sector in Nigeria, lay in the nation�s ability to quickly setin motion, a viable schedule of equipment replacement and human resources improvement that would support the industry.
Now that Nigeria has been hit again by another air disaster, chances are that the whole nation would rise in unison again to condemn the system and ask for
the heads of not only the airline operators but officials of the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
Oct302006