The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, has stressed the need for more funding of the aviation agencies to enable them cope with the increase in demands for air travel.
Nnaji made this known in Abuja, during an interaction between the committee and the heads of agencies led by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Mr. Hassan Musa. The interaction was at the instance of a motion on the urgent need to investigate claims of engine failure and bird strikes that disrupted Aero Contractors and Max Air flights on Kano and Port Harcourt routes.
The House in plenary had mandated the committee on aviation to summon the Ministry and its agencies to give clarifications on the two incidents to avoid accident in future.
The chairman demanded assurances from the team which included the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) Captain Musa Nuhu, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Yadadu, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA), Captain Fola Akintotu, and the Commissioner Accident Investigation Bureau, (AIB) Akin Olateru who assured the committee that flying is still safe in Nigeria’s airspace.
Nnaji stressed that the insecurity in the country has placed high premium on air travel which required that the Ministry and the agencies needed to do more to sustain the safety records the country has achieved in that past years.
On his part, Musa assured that the problem of bird strike was a worldwide phenomenon and the several studies have proved that it doesn’t pose much threat to safety.
His statement was corroborated by Yadudu and Olateru.
Yadudu specifically stated that bird strikes impacts negatively more on finances of airlines than safety, adding that it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and sometimes up to a million to replace an engine damaged by bird strike. He explained that a lot of funding was needed to upgrade some of the aviation facilities including the bird strikes control equipment.
THISDAY
