Hello and welcome to the blog!
Today's blog addresses the functions of the Accident Investigation Bureau and its relevance in the aviation industry in Nigeria. (For a full description of the Agency, you can see a previous post addressing the aviation agencies in Nigeria).
On the 2nd of February 2019, the vice
president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN was involved in a helicopter
accident, but for the sake of events which evades all form of scientific explanation, nobody was hurt; both the passengers and the crew member.
AW 319, A.K.A CML,
belonging to Caverton helicopters, was the carrier. Later that evening, they
released a statement claiming that the accident was due to bad weather. Several speculations
have been made into the event and investigations are still ongoing.
Section 29 of the Civil Aviation Act
establishes the Accident Investigation Bureau to investigate the
cause of accidents. The Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and
Incidents) Regulations 2016 provides for the manner of exercising and carrying
out the bureau’s powers, duties and functions. The extent of investigations and
the procedure to be followed is determined by the commissioner. On completion
of an investigation, the investigator in charge must prepare a report, which
should be made publicly available as soon as possible.
What liability regime
governs death, injury and loss arising from air accidents?
Liability for death, injury and loss from air
accidents is governed by the Civil Aviation Act. Section 48 of the act
domesticates the Montreal Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules
Relating to International Carriage by Air.
What are the reporting
requirements for air accidents?
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations
prescribe that where an accident or incident occurs, notice must be given to
the Accident Investigation Bureau by the quickest means of communication
available, and in the case of an accident occurring in or over Nigeria, notice
must also be given to a police officer operating in the area where the accident
occurred.
The persons required to give notification
include the pilot in command of the aircraft involved at the time of the
accident or serious incident or, if he or she is fatally injured or
incapacitated, the quality assurance and safety personnel, owner or operator of
the aircraft, other crew members and, where the aircraft is not registered in
Nigeria but operated by an undertaking established in Nigeria, the undertaking.
Usually, in any air carrier organization, the quality department, the continuing airworthiness team and the operations are
primarily charged with ensuring that all flights, in-bound and out-bound are
safe for operations.
The quality system ensures compliance with and
adequacy of operational and maintenance requirements, standards and operational
procedure to ensure safe and airworthy aircraft. The quality system areas of
monitoring compliance include the Nigeria Civil Aviation quality policy,
organizational structure, documentation which includes manuals, reports and
records, quality assurance program, training requirements and required
resources (financial, human and materials).
The basis of the company’s quality control and
assurance programme and operations quality system is laid down in Nigeria Civil
Aviation Regulations Part 6.2.1.14 and Part 9.2.2.2, which require a system to
be put in place to ensure safe operation and maintenance practices and
airworthy aircraft.
The regulations also provide for the content
of the notice to be given to the Bureau.
In conclusion, the A.I.B which is under
the Ministry of Transportation and is charged with the responsibility to
investigate any civil aircraft accident and serious incident arising out of, or
in the course of air navigation and occurring either in or over Nigeria, or
occurring to Nigerian aircraft elsewhere.
The
fundamental objective of AIB is to improve aviation safety by determining the
circumstances and causes of air accidents and serious incidents, and providing
safety recommendations intended to prevent recurrence of similar accidents. The
purpose of this is not to apportion blame or liability.
Share
your thoughts by leaving your questions, comments and suggestions in the
comment box. Thank you for taking the time to read and share this post.
Please follow my discussions on my LinkedIn account at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayomide-a-jide-omole-062633112
THIS BLOG does not claim credit for any images posted on this site
unless and otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful
owners. If there is an image appearing on this site that belongs to you, and
you do not wish for it to appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to
said image and it will be promptly removed
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for sharing!