- The report card on commercial aviation in Nigeria is mixed
First, the good news: No accident was recorded in that sector since 2016.
Air travellers and indeed the general public should welcome this development. It is especially reassuring since, in previous years, accident followed ghastly accident, with heavy loss of life. Report after report also indicated that a great deal of improvement is warranted in that area and also tended to suggest that the next accident was waiting to happen.
But in recent times, according to industry sources, safety management systems have been instituted, and much greater attention has been paid to aircraft and systems maintenance, and to training and re-training. Newer fleets have also been pressed into service. These measures, according to industry sources, have resulted in a better safety record.
While it is too early to call this a turnaround in commercial aviation, it is a hopeful step towards one. Everything must be done to sustain it and reach even higher.
Now, the not-so-good news: Four of every five aviation incidents in Nigeria result from pilot error, with weather and maintenance accounting for the balance, according to Gbenga Olowo, president of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative, speaking last week at the Tourism Fair of the Akwaaba African Travel Market.
In a field that has a very small margin of error, these figures are rather disquieting. They suggest that the pilots flying our planes are not of the highest calibre, and that our airports are not adequately equipped to cope with difficult weather conditions.
There was a time, not long ago, when Nigerian pilots trained in Nigeria were ranked among the very best in the world. Can it be that the standard of training, like standards in practically every area of our national life, has fallen? The parlous condition of the Nigerian College of Civil Aviation and Technology, Zaria, certainly invites the question, as well an investigation.
With the cutting-edge automation that is now de rigueur in aviation, aircraft can land and take off in all but the foulest of weather conditions, from which Nigeria has generally been spared. Even at its height, the harmattan should pose little menace to flying for planes that have the right equipment. The fact that commercial aviation is paralysed during harmattan suggests that the planes are still not fully equipped for flying in such weather.
There are no longer reports of herds of cattle thronging airport runways on to reach fields within the port perimeter that herders have turned into grazing lands. But has everything been done that can be done to ensure maximum safety when planes land or take off?
In the capital-intensive enterprise that is commercial aviation, the temptation to cut corners must be considerable, especially among marginal and middling players. Skipping maintenance schedules, and settling for spare parts of dubious provenance, are among the practices often decried by industry regulators. Whenever confirmed, these practices must be visited with the appropriate sanctions.
Unflagging vigilance must be the rule in an industry that ferries millions across national and international skies – vigilance among industry operators, vigilance among regulatory agencies, and vigilance among patrons and interest groups, to ensure safety of travel.
