*Explains Sources of Funding for Bureau
The newly established Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has released seven air accident reports, which include the serious incident involving Bristow Helicopters Nigeria Ltd, Embraer 135 Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BSN which occurred at Port Harcourt military Airport (NAF BASE), Port Harcourt, on the March 9, 2020; the serious incident involving ATR-72 Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N- BPG owned and operated by Overland Airways limited, which occurred at Ilorin International Airport, Nigeria on November 29, 2014; the serious incident involving Boeing 737-300 Aircraft belonging to Air Peace Limited with nationality and registration Marks 5N-BUO which occurred at FL310 enroute Enugu from Lagos on December 14, 2018 and the serious incident involving British Aerospace BAE 125-800B Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BOO operated by Gyro Aviation limited, which occurred at Port Harcourt, Nigeria on 16th July 2020.
Others are the serious incident involving British Aerospace BAE 125-800B aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BOO operated by Gyro Aviation limited, which occurred at Osubi airstrip, Warri, Nigeria on September 10, 2020; the serious incident involving a Dornier 328-100 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-DOX, operated by Dornier Aviation Nigeria AIEP (DANA) Limited, which occurred at Port Harcourt military Airport on 23rd January 2019 and the serious incident involving Airbus 330-243 aircraft operated by middle East Airlines with nationality and registration marks OD-MEA and a parked Boeing 777 aircraft operated by Turkish Airlines with nationality and registration marks TC-LJC which occurred at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on 29th July, 2020.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Director General NSIB, Akin Olateru, at a virtual press conference on the release of the accident reports.
He also spoke about how the activities of the new organsiation would be funded and said the Act establishing the NSIB increases the revenue from 3 percent to six percent, adding that it would get 5 percent from Passenger Service Charge (PSC) being collected by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and 6 percent from Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) collected on behalf of other aviation agencies by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Olateru also disclosed that the Bureau would get certain per cent of charges from all terminal operators and ticket sales in Nigeria, including the maritime sector.
The Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria (AIB) changed its name to Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) following the new NSIB Act 2022, which was recently assented to by President Muhammed Buhari. The Supreme Court gazetted the new NSIB Act on November 28, 2022.
It will henceforth investigate serious incidents and accidents in aviation, maritime, rail, and road sectors.
“A lot of work went into the drafting of the bill before it was accented to. According to the Act, the NSIB gets six percent of TSC and 5 percent of PSC from FAAN, there is a percentage from railway tickets, we will find a way to balance it as the proposals are approved in the Act. You all know we do not charge for investigation and so we are a fully funded Bureau’’, he said.
Speaking on the expertise and training of staff with the new name and scope of work, Olateru said the Bureau plans to recruit more technocrats, adding, “Out of the 45 investigators, three quarter of them have been trained abroad on multi-modal accident investigation, we have 220 staff right now that have expertise on air accident investigation, but we need expertise in the maritime sector too’, he said.
Olateru disclosed further that the Bureau achieved 82 percent of implementation of safety records so far adding that it works with stakeholders in the implementation of the recommendations.
“We achieved 82 percent and that is not different from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) can achieve, we collaborate with stakeholders on the implementation”, he added.
The newly released reports make a total of 82 aircraft accident reports released by the Bureau since its establishment in 2007 and a total of 63 reports released by the current administration from 2017 till date.
THISDAY
