By Favour Nnabugwu

Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has said that the cargo terminal project at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja will be commissioned soon.

The  cargo terminal that will be commission by President Muhammadu Buhari reiterated that the national carrier will take off before the end of the year with boeing 737 series airplanes.

Sirika stated while responding to questions from lawmakers during his defence or 2023 budget at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

He said: “There are two cargo projects in Abuja. One has been completely finished and will be commissioned by His Excellency Mr. President soon. The second one, the contract was given in 2012, the contractors were advanced money up to about 75%.

“These contracts were abandoned by the contractors. Mr. President directed that they be investigated, prosecuted and the monies recovered but because we don’t have prosecuting powers, we reported to EFCC.

“Now in the last three and half years, they confirmed to me that they have finished the investigation. This is worrisome. We will inform the the House when we see EFCC and they brief us formally.

“The aviation ministry has recorded some significant achievements in virtually all areas of the sector within the life of this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We have provided the safety and security needed in the aviation sector, which has led to the certification for the first time ever in the history of the country of Murtala Mohamed Airport, Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport.

“It is a milestone being the first ever airports to be certified, government in, government out. This testimony as to our concern to our focus on safety. We have recorded the highest level of safety and unprecedented growth, making aviation the fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy.

“Today, Nigeria is the 7th highest country in recovery from COVID. Some airlines also received interventions to be saved from total collapse. We also created an enabling environment, which provided airlines in the country to attain certification and international air transport association operational safety audit. Our airports are wearing new and befitting looks.”

In his remarks, earlier, the chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji expressed concern over the omission of the 2023 budget of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) by the government, promising to address the matter.

“You would recall that the committee spend most of last week visiting some projects executed by the ministry and some of its agencies within the FCT. Within the next few weeks, the committee will be embarking on similar tours to most importantly but not limited to the other three International Airports Terminals slated for concession.

“The Committee has noticed with great concern the omission of one of the critical Security and Safety Agency of the Ministry, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) from the 2023 FGN budget.

“This Committee and its Senate counterpart is committed to ensuring that the abnormality is corrected. However, as the minister superintending the ministry, we request that you make the clarification on the matter,” Nnaji said.

By Favour Nnabugwu

The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N), has directed all airlines, both commercial and non commercial operating in the country to establish an accident investigation unit in the offices

This is coming against the backdrop of the Havilland DHC -6-400 Twin Otter operated by Caverton Cameroon that crashed in May 2022.

It was learnt that the DHR-6-400 Twin Otter (registered TJ-TIM) was operating Yaoundé (Nsimalen) – Dompta – Yaoundé (Nsimalen) on May 11, 2022 when it crashed killing all the passengers and crew members. The aircraft was found crashed in a forest, not far from Nanga Eboko.

Both countries are exploring areas of cooperation and collaboration that can boost accident investigation and air safety in Africa.

However, the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N), Engr. Akin Olateru while receiving the investigation team from Cameroon probing the crash stated that, Nigeria was part of the investigation in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 since there were Nigerians onboard the ill-fated aircraft.

He said: “Cameroon has not decided whether it would cede the investigation completely to Nigeria or not.

“Nigeria will be assisting Cameroon in the investigation with her Flight Safety Laboratory, which is one of the best in the world currently.

“The laboratory has an upgraded facility called Memory Access Retriever System (MARS), which will be deployed to retrieve information from the CVR, which was badly burnt and damaged.

“As you are aware, we have one of the best safety laboratories in the world. We have the capability, which the United States NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has, which is getting information from burnt or damaged flight recorders. This aircraft crashed and a recorder badly burnt but we will be able to retrieve the information. This is one of the best equipment you can find in the world today.

“You will understand that this is not the first time Nigeria will be helping other nations. We helped Sao Tome and Principe during an investigation. We helped Gambia. We helped Niger republic. We are helping Sierra Leone”.

“We just got an approval from the Ministry of Justice to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sierra Leone to help them set up an accident investigation body. This is where we are today. “

He stated that the unit would help the airlines to understand and take advantage of the benefits of accident investigation to boost safety in their operations.

“Big carriers like American Airlines have such units, which has greatly benefited the carriers adding that it is the responsibility of everyone to have an understanding of accident investigation in Africa.

“When fully commissioned AIB-N training school will play significant role in training airlines’ personnel in accident investigation, which will help them in investigating occurrences with a view to enhancing safety in their operations.

“The AIB Training School, a world class training institution located in Abuja is near completion and is expected to commence operations before the end of the year. Singapore and other two countries have signified readiness to assist the AIB training school.”

Meanwhile, the Cameroonian delegation led by Mrs Leopoldine Essimi of Ministry of Transport included Col. Brice Okomou, Capt. Raymond Ekenglo and Mrs Mispa Samnick.

According to her, “We are in Nigeria to seek AIB-N expertise in the reading of the flight recorders, transcription of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), analysis of the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and FDR animation.”

By Favour Nnabugwu

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) announced the suspension of Dana Airlines’ Air Transport Licence (ATL) and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) indefinitely, with effect from midnight of Wednesday, 20th July, 2022.

According to the authority, the suspension was made pursuant to Section 35(2), 3(b) and (4) of the Civil Aviation Act, 2006 and Part 1.3.3.3(a)(1) of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs), 2015.

The suspension order, handed down by the Director General, Captain Musa Nuhu, has since been communicated to the management of Dana Airlines.

Nuhu notes that, “The decision is the outcome of a financial and economic health audit carried out on the Airline by the Authority, and the findings of an investigation conducted on the Airline’s flight operations recently, which revealed that Dana Airlines is no longer in a position to meet its financial obligations and to conduct safe flight operations.

“The NCAA acknowledges the negative effect this preemptive decision will have on the Airline’s passengers and the travelling public and seeks their understanding, as the safety of flight operations takes priority over all other considerations.”

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero contractors also suspended its passenger flight operations indefinitely from today.

Vanguard had reported that the company, stated that the suspension of its operations was due to the impact of the challenging operating environment on its daily operations.

In a reaction to the development, Aviation Analyst, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, stated that, “Aero Contractors is the oldest airline in Nigeria and also the most successful in the non-scheduled operation services before they ventured into schedule operations, and since then they have been struggling to break through the bridges of operations couple the buy over by the Ibru family and then professionalism began to erode the company, coupled with mismanagement.

“The company have maintained a perfect safety record, they went into aircraft and maintenance had a succession in viable maintenance organization, they have a standard and well-equipped training school.

“As a company, they felt like rather than lose it all, they had to suspend a section of the business. It is a perfect decision, they have been with AMCON for sometimes and they are yet to come out of that problem. If they suspend flight operations to concentrate on other aspects of their operations which includes non-schedule operations which are profitable, aircraft maintenance agency and the aircraft training school which is doing well, I must commend them for being bold on this.”