* From left Mr Tunji Oketunmbi, General Manager, Public Affairs, Accident Investigation Bureau AIB; Eng Akin Olateru, Commissioner/CEO and Mr Olusegun Koiki, Chairman, League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents during the LAAC Gateway forum with AIB Commissioner/CEO, held at Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja yesterday
The Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Accident T Investigation Bureau(AIB) Nigeria has stated that the agency must partner with critical stakeholders in other sector to be able to carry out its air accident investigation in the event that an accident occurred in a very difficult terrain
He listed the critical stakeholders to include Maritime, the Navy , Air Force Fire among others .
Olateru stated this while speaking at the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents(LAAC) Gateway Forum via Zoom event yesterday.
He explained that the partnership with these stakeholders are very necessary to come together as one very efficient unit to carry out any assignment in the event of an accident in a very difficult area.
He argued that lack of partnership with other groups relevant to the investigation can frustrate the investigation in view of the fact that accident investigation must be timely so that stakeholders can learn from it .
To buttress his point , he said that if there is an air accident in the sea , it would be difficult for the agency to retrieve the wreckage of the ill fated aircraft because it does not have divers.
Olateru explained that these challenges explain the need for AIB to have partnership with such critical stakeholders.
According to him, “It is very serious matter and some agencies of government do not understand why AIB need all these partnerships. They don’t understand why we are pushing for this cooperation. I will give you an instance. God forbid an aircraft crash into the sea, AIB, I don’t have the capacity for sea divers to retrieve any wreckage or to retrieve my ‘black box’ but Nigerian Navy does.”
He also informed that he has been trying since 2017, to sign MoU with the Nigeria Navy, before any accident happens because according to him it is not until there is an accident that the agency start looking for whom to call, adding that that is why AIB wants to sign MoU with these stakeholders.
He said that the agency has how ever signed with Nigeria Air Force
“We can also be of help to the Air Force because we have a world class safety laboratory in Abuja and so rather than the Air Force sending their ‘black box’ overseas, they can use our lab and save Nigeria some cost. At the end of the day, it is to the benefit of the entire nation,” Olateru said
He also hinted that it has been talking with National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) but that it has not yielded any fruit.
