Airline operators and other experts in the aviation sector said strictly compliance with safety regulations and other internal safety measures put in place have helped to curb major air accidents in the last two years.
They also gave kudos to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for strict enforcement of the regulations as well as ensuring the airlines put internal measures in place to ensure safety of air passengers.
Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, Captain Ado Sanusi confirmed that in addition to the efforts of NCAA and NAMA, the airlines are strictly complying with safety regulations and are also carry out strict internal safety measures to ensure incident free operations.
He noted that every airline feels the negative impact of a crash, no matter the airline that was involved in it adding besides the lives that would be wasted, it batters the image of Nigeria in comity of nations.
Industry consultant and CEO of Belujane Konsult, Chris Aligbe told THISDAY that NCAA has been able to enforce compliance with safety regulations and that explained why domestic airlines’ safety status has significantly improved in the last two years. He said airlines are beginning to comply with safety regulations because NCAA has become defiant and would not allow things to slip. “So the operators have realised that the tea party is over as NCAA ensures that airlines pay hugely when they fail to comply”, he said.
Aligbe added: “This is why Nigerian has not recorded any major incident or accident involving commercial airlines in the last two years. Kudos should also go to the Airworthiness Directorate in NCAA, which has been doing its job diligently and making sure that safety standards are not compromised. The leadership of the regulatory authority has shown strict adherence to the rules and others have followed those rules and that is why we are having good safety record. We wish that this standard continues and is improved on so that the good record of accident free airline operation is maintained.”
He noted that the period when there was no substantive Director-General of NCAA affected operations of the Authority and urged government to avoid such situation in future.
He also said that NAMA has executed many projects aimed at improving the airspace and reducing flight time for airlines. Besides, he said the agency’s efforts have taken Nigerian to higher heights by ensuring the airspace meets global standard, pointing out that the country is recording more aircraft as over flyers because the air space is safer than in the past.
In many countries of the world, air crashes are rare but in Nigeria the frequency of air accidents made many Nigerians who could afford it to resort to road transportation.
The last tragic crash that took place in Nigeria, involved the Associated Aviation flight that crashed shortly after take off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on October 3, 2013.
The Associated Aviation flight 361 was on domestic charter service to Akure, Ondo state when it crashed. The accident happened exactly one year and three months after one of the nation’s most tragic crashes, which involved Dana Air flight on June 3, 2012 that consumed the lives of 153 persons on board.
But since 2013 there has not been such accident and experts have expressed the hope that with the safety measures in place, air passengers’ safety is guaranteed.
