|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Senate has summoned the Minister of State for Transportation (Aviation), Hadi Sirika, to brief plenary on the steps taken to minimise human errors and avoid preventable air crashes in Nigeria.
Also to appear before the apex legislative body are heads of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and other relevant agencies in the aviation industry.
It also urged the Minister to immediately direct all relevant agencies in the industry to immediately conduct a maintenance and airworthiness audit on all commercial aircraft operating within the Nigerian Airspace as well as the training of personnel operating within the industry.
The resolutions followed a motion moved by Gbenga Ashafa (APC, Lagos State) at Senate plenary on Tuesday.
In a motion titled: “The need to Minimise the Possibility of Air Mishaps and Near Fatalities in Nigeria,” the lawmaker expressed concern that the recent occurrences might be a sign of a sequence of human errors, caused by the failure of officials and staff of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of guaranteeing safety to carry out due diligence before issuing clearance for aircrafts to operate within the Nigerian airspace.
He lamented the near fatal incidents at the Port Harcourt and Abuja Airports recently.
“The Senate recalls with sadness that Nigeria has experienced a significant number of air catastrophes that cost the lives of hundreds of Nigerians, due to a range of causes including human and technical errors.
“States with concern that it is against this backdrop that it has now become imperative to move with speed and alacrity in order to ensure that all relevant agencies in the Aviation industry do their work with excellence and minimal human error in order to prevent avoidable loss of human lives,” the lawmaker said.
In her contribution, former Aviation Minister and current senator representing Anambra North in the National Assembly, Stella Odua, kicked against the calls for public hearing by some of her colleagues. She pointed out that the problem of the nation’s aviation industry was funding.
