The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has attributed the improved air safety experienced in the aviation country to  its quality probes into air accidents, serious incidents and timely release of safety reports.

This is just as the bureau said that in the last 10 years, Nigeria’s airspace had only recorded two fatal civil air crashes, leading to the unfortunate loss of nine souls within the period.

The Director-General, NSIB, Engr. Akin Olateru, stated this in Abuja while presenting a paper titled, “Nigeria Evolving Approach to Aviation Safety and Learning from Occurrence Investigation” at the Aviation Africa Summit 2023.

He insisted that Nigeria had the safest safety record in the globe, stressing that the country was now a force to reckon with in the sector.

Olateru pointed out that there was a downward trend from fatal accident to accident and now serious incidents in the civil occurrences currently in Nigeria, saying that, “In the last four years, Nigeria had only one accident per year in terms of classification.”

He cited the Bristow Helicopters crash of 2015 and Quorum Helicopters accident of 2019 as the only two civil occurrences in which fatalities were so far recorded within the period.

Olateru maintained that Nigeria witnesses more incidents than accidents in the civil air mishaps these days, adding that through the enhancement of soft systems being deployed in the conduct of probes into civil aviation occurrences and timely release of reports, the number of serious incidents would  reduce.

Besides, Olateru further announced the plans by the bureau, in collaboration with the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to review and measure the effectiveness of all safety recommendations that had been issued over the years.

He said the purpose of this was to monitor their implementation through the setting up of committees, stressing that this would be unveiled in 2024.

He clarified that this was not the first time NSIB would embark on such an initiative, and that the bureau in 2020 under his leadership organised a similar programme.

The NSIB boss also unveiled  plans by the bureau to make an arrangement through the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, NCAA and relevant stakeholders to bring both local and foreign insurance firms for deliberation to address the issue of high insurance premium of airlines in Nigeria in 2024.

The NSIB boss further explained that the agency had generally through the development of mechanism for early reporting of occurrence, identifying and improving personnel’s technical skills, training of first responders on what to do at the occurrence sites, keeping a database for analysis to identify trends and patterns became evolving approach of the bureau that had guaranteed a safer airspace in Nigeria and beyond.

“It is necessary to engage stakeholders in the industry and the public on the need to report occurrences as they happen or you become aware of them through mandatory and voluntary reporting,” he added.

This, according to him, formed part of the evolving approach of the bureau that led to a safer sky over Nigeria.

The Aviation Africa Summit 2023, which was the first to be held in the West African sub-region, had about 1,500 participants from 75 countries.