ICAO to Assist AIB on Flight Safety Laboratory

By Chinedu Eze

A combined team of officials from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Singapore have arrived Nigeria to assist the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to evaluate its Flight Safety Laboratory aimed at preventing air crashes and help in accident investigation.

This was disclosed in Lagos by the Commissioner of AIB Akin Olateru, who said the team was led by Mr. Caj Frostel from ICAO, adding that one of team’s objectives was to ensure that the facility meets international standards.

Speaking with journalists at the bureau’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) weekend, Olateru said he was happy about the team’s visit and explained that it was projects like the safety laboratory that made it imperative that the organisation needed more funding and hence the quest for five per cent of passenger service charge (PSC), which has been approved by the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

He noted that the laboratory was cost intensive like other projects aimed at pre-empting and preventing accidents and frowned on the criticism that trailed the approval of 5 per cent of the PSC to the agency by the ministry from a section of the industry, adding that several AIB projects were stalled because of paucity of funds.

He said that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act 2006, gets 58 per cent, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) earns 23 per cent, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) gets seven per cent while the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) earns nine per cent of the total sum.

Details later…