The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) said on Monday that inability of pathologists and coroners to submit their final reports on the October 4, 2013 Associated Airline’s plane crash in Lagos has delayed the bureau from making public its final report on the accident.
The AIB, however, reiterated that despite the recent accidents in the global aviation industry, which have led to the loss of hundreds of lives, air transport remain the safest mode of transportation worldwide.
Felix Abali, AIB commissioner, said in Lagos that it would be unprofessional for the agency to release the final report without looking critically at the inputs of pathologists and coroners.
The plane crash claimed 16 lives out of 20 persons on board while it was conveying the corpse of Olusegun Agagu, former Ondo State governor, to Akure for burial.
He expressed that in a bid to resolve such challenges in the future AIB was currently working with a major pathologist in the country who, he said, has connections with some of the hospitals in different states across the nation.
“That takes us back to the problems we are having with coroners and pathologists. We are actually still waiting for their reports. Accident as you know could be caused by a lot of factors. Assuming that one of the crewmembers was drunk, how do you determine this? It is through pathological reports that you can know the true state of health of such crewmember.
“If we don’t have such information then the report is incomplete. We cannot go and publish something and leave out some aspects. What we have been doing is that we try to come to an understanding with them. We have been trying to write a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with them. As a matter of fact, we just started working with one of the pathologists who basically has a lot of connections with some of the hospitals in different states. These hospitals will work with this individual who will just report to us. If that works, I think the situation would be alleviated.”
Abali assured that the sector was safe for flying despite some accidents in recent time, but said that accident could not be eradicated in the industry; rather, it could be reduced to the barest minimum.
“Aviation industry is safe globally and will always be safe. Till now except the one that happened over Ukraine that the people know the cause of it, the other two or three, we don’t know the causes yet and I think in accident investigation, it is not always right to speculate. It doesn’t do the industry any good and it will not enhance safety in the system.
“Until the black boxes are discovered and the true causes of the accidents are known, we won’t be able to comment much on them. But, I want to emphasise here that aviation is still the safest mode of transportation anywhere in the world”, he said.
