BAGAIA Workshop: Nigeria Hosts Regional AIB Safety Workshop
Aviation Correspondent
Accident investigators under the Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA), came together in Abuja for a workshop on the role of accident/incident investigation in the state safety Programs.
According to the Commissioner Nigeria Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Engr. Akin Olateru who was represented by the director engineering, Engr . Mohammed Wali, the safety recommendations which will arise from the workshop will be a boost for the industry. He said past trainings have had a huge impact on the AIB which according to him has written about 64 reports so far.
Wali further said in the last six years, the Nigerian airspace has been one of the safest in the world which is a result of the synergy between the NCAA which does the regulation and the AIB which does the investigation.
He said Nigeria currently has one of best laboratories in the world in terms of analysing data from flight recorders to the extent that other countries like Cameroon come to Nigeria to use their services. A recent feat he cited was the retrieval of information from a damaged recorder on behalf of Cameroon which he said had never been done in Africa.
” Nigeria is the first country,if you remember the Calverton crash, we did the download in Nigeria, we did the Analysis. Nigeria is not the country of occurrence it they came to is because of our expertise”.
The commissioner BAGAIA, Engr. Charles Erhuer who welcomed participants expressed optimism that the workshop would help address some state safety concerns. He stressed the importance of coming together to brainstorm and share knowledge in the interest of member countries.
The workshop which is centered on flight recorders kicked off with the first set of lectures by Denis Jones, retired Managing director of National transportation safety board (NTSB) an experienced investigator with numerous investigations and trainings to his credit.
Countries that are members of BAGAIA include Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea and Central Senegal
Source: News Annex
