By Wale Olu
The National Assembly recently passed some resolutions with respect to
The National Assembly recently passed some resolutions with respect to
events in the industry; in unison we can applaud some of them while
the others are either bad or ugly.
The directive to the Central Bank to recover funds given to Air
Nigeria is commendable, with four aircraft parked in the cold in
Hampshire, England awaiting the lessors’ decision and another parked
close to the GAT graveyard without engines. It is clear that Air
Nigeria has turned round the turnaround expert. This is a sad story,
since this airline was flying without an investor or intervention fund
sometime ago in this country and it was managed by a Nigerian.
The directive to compel NCAA to ensure all airlines involved in
accidents settle all outstanding insurance obligations and ensure that
all airlines have adequate insurance cover as required by the
regulations is also a good one. They should go further and ensure that
owners or managers of such airlines do not return to the industry in
another name or designation without offsetting their liabilities.
On the MD 83’s they are still flying without issues round the world,
I stated sometime after the crash that Air Burkina and Air Mali are
using those aircraft to ferry Air France passengers to points beyond
Ouagadougou and Bamako, while our airlines with brand new aircraft
are overlooked for such commercial agreements. The same aircraft has
been picking Nigerian troops from Abuja and other African troops or
officials under the auspices of the United Nations, will the UN use an
unsafe aircraft with its LOGO emblazoned on it?
The directive setting passenger aircraft age limit at 15 years and
cargo at 20 years is not a panacea to air crashes; rather it will
drive some carriers out of the market, increase unemployment and
fares. Is it the airframe or the engine that must have this age limit?
What happens if the airframe is 16 years and the engines are 3years?
Please let us leave the status quo and allow the regulators do their
job, in line with air worthiness directives from reputable
international agencies.
The directive asking the government to revoke the license of DANA
Airlines is a bad one; the airline has just been re-certified by NCAA
and some other airlines are going through that process. If the
Legislature views the certification of DANA despite having an
international AMO as partner is faulty and the NCAA cannot be trusted,
it means all other AOCs issued by the NCAA should be revoked with
immediate effect; anything short of this is RACISM. I just pray their
country of descent will not target Nigerian investors too. The
priority should be payment of compensation to all.
The directive demanding for the removal of the DG and the dismissal of
the Engineer saddled with the inspection of the ill fated DANA
aircraft is distasteful, hasty and ugly. Rather, a speedy
investigation and conclusion of the accident report should be our
priority; at that point there will be no place to hide for every one
anymore.
I do not believe the demand of the Senate is based on tribal
sentiments as espoused in some quarters rather it is based on some
information that look mischievous emanating from the cocktail of
submissions made before, during and after the public hearing. The DG
should not be tagged with incompetence based on his record so far, he
should rather be decorated with national honours for elevating the
regulatory institution rather than being hounded disrespectfully. Let
the senate hang proven corruption charges and breach of contract on
him, the tide will change ferociously.
ROSAVIATSIA, the Russian equivalent of NCAA was almost pushed last
year by their parliament, the DUMA to revoke the licenses of some
airlines due to air mishaps. The Agency resisted and conducted their
investigations. Red Wings Airline only last week lost its AOC in that
process. The Russian regulator said they are losing the license, not
because of the air crash they had on the 29th of December 2012, but
due to the numerous significant violations found during
re-certification. Also, the airline lacked financial resources to
provide ongoing operations consistent with appropriate level of
safety. This is processes and procedure without interference but
requisite oversight responsibility by all parties.
We are scaring investors. We need to stop the bickering and attract
them by capitalising on our CAT 1 status.
If the National Assembly really has so much time on their hands and consider
they are not so busy attending to more pressing urgent matters of national
interest on the deteriorating economy and nation, including the wide gap between
the rich and the poor, let alone all the corruption in the Executive and the Legislature
then they should look at investigating all the fuel companies who supply aviation fuel
as they are the ones responsible for contaminated fuel causing recent air accidents. Wole Olu writes from Lagos, Nigeria
