Last week Nigeria retained the US Federal Aviation Administration Category One Safety Status certification, which was awarded to it in 2010. This is a pointer that despite enormous challenges, the future appears bright for Nigeria’s aviation sector, writes Chinedu Eze
In 2010, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded Nigeria Category One safety status. Nigeria secured the award after FAA was satisfied that the country met the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) standards.
After the Dana Airline flight crash in 2012 and the Associated Aviation flight crash, the media became awash with reports that suggested that Nigeria might not have been qualified for the FAA award, given the poor state of her aviation sector.
This prompted the FAA, to this year review the award, eliciting doubts from many Nigerians that the country would retain the Category One Safety Status rating.
The IASA is a programme established by the FAA to ensure that all aircraft registered outside United States that operate to and fro the US are properly licenced and are subject to safety oversight provided by a competent Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
The objective of the review was to ensure that Nigeria still maintains the safety standard in air transport, which enabled US to award Nigeria the certification.
Although, the criteria for the award were not known, there were fears that with the Dana and Associated Airlines’ crashes, Nigeria was on the way of losing the rating, which would have adversely impacted the aviation industry and set it backwards for at least 20 years. In addition to the crashes, there were political upheavals in the sector with the appointment and sudden removal of the then Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
After unnecessarily long interlude, government appointed a Director General to manage the regulatory body in acting capacity. Despite the many controversies this past seven months the acting NCAA Director General was at the helm of affairs, Nigeria, to the greatest surprise of many, still retained its Category One safety status.
The interregnum between the audit of the industry through the NCAA by the officials of FAA and the time the certification was re-awarded to Nigeria was a period of intense anxiety.
It was very obvious that some wished Nigeria would lose the rating, so that they could beat their chests that their criticisms of the industry were justified. Among these are some retired aviators, who felt their voices were no more being heard and are therefore no more as influential. Others are others who felt that recent changes in the sector did not augur well with them; so they would literally want the house to collapse.
So it was really disappointing and shocking to these individuals that Nigeria retained the safety status. No wanting to give, these individuals who have portrayed themselves ‘enemies of Nigeria’ have now labeled the certification, ‘political Category One’.
Benefits of FAA Certification
As FAA Category One country, there are invaluable gains that will accrue to Nigeria. This become manifest since 2010 when the country got the rating. One major benefit is that the Nigerian aviation sector is now rated highly in the world aviation industry. Also, Nigerian airlines now have easy access to credit facility from international financiers, and insurance premium for Nigerian registered aircraft is relatively low compared to what was it was in the past.
Again, by joining the Category One rated countries, Nigeria has become the attraction of foreigners who are interested to invest in the aviation industry. Already, more airlines have started operating into the Nigeria since 2010. According to the former Director General of NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, the attached benefits and growth propensity have been massive for the industry.
Akinkuotu observed that due to the enhanced safety rating, insurance premium for airlines had been reasonable, adding that the certification engenders much more favourable leasing/lending terms from financial institutions for Nigerian airline operators. This is a big plus considering the fact that 60 per cent of aircraft operating in Nigeria are leased.
Since 2010 too, the volume of traffic into the country had been increasing annually and there was an influx of scheduled commercial airlines operating into the regional hub for West Africa, including business and cultural exchange in the region.
“The industry has grown and the certification has made the industry attractive to foreign and local operators and Nigerian registered aircraft were able to fly directly to the US destination, unlike in the past when a flight from Nigeria must land in FAA Category One country before taking off to the US,” Akinkuotu noted.
FAA, had in its letter to NCAA late last year, indicated that it would come to audit the industry. Specifically, the US regulatory agency noted that the audit was in response to Nigeria’s media reports. THISDAY learnt that without such reports, FAA might not have decided to audit Nigeria again too soon, having awarded the country the status in 2010. Ordinarily, the certification has no tenure, contrary to general believe in the industry. FAA can decide to carry out an audit whenever it feels like doing so. Sometimes, it coul take up to 10 years.
Improvements
So much has happened in the aviation industry between 2010 and 2014 in terms of the provision of safety critical equipment and facilities. For instance, before July 2011, there were only 20 fire tenders available, but presently the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has 46 fire tenders. The fire fighters need to have their training facilities in Nigeria, so that they will stop going to Cameroon.
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), through the new Air Traffic Management system deployed under the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project, had greatly improved the safety of the Nigerian airspace.
The TRACON project has been completed with approach radar control in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. Area Radar completed in Lagos and Kano area control and this has significantly increased airspace capacity for the Nigerian aviation industry.
TRACON had significantly improved safety in the sector in addition to the deployment of control tower solar power for navigational aids which was unavailable for a long time and now Nigeria has six navigational aids and 11 control towers to its credit.
The NCAA recorded major achievements after the Category One certification in 2010 and one of these achievements was the deployment of flight tracking system, Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS) which was unavailable in the country before the FAA certification.
Also, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), which has provided low level wind share and new weather reading equipment and the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) had recorded various achievements that have enhanced aviation safety and security in Nigeria since the country attained the Category One status.
Some of these achievements include the AIPB now being able to download, extract, decode and analyse aircraft accident data from the CVR and FDR (Black Boxes) thus saving time and money for the country.
Air Accidents
On the down side, within this period Nigeria recorded one of the most tragic accidents in its history. It was the crash of Dana Air flight 992, involving a McDonnel Douglas MD-83 aircraft, which was on scheduled passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos on June 3, 2012. The plane crashed into a furniture workshop and printing press building at the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood in Lagos state and killed all the 153 persons on board and about 10 persons on the ground.
The crash was said to be the deadliest aviation disaster involving a McDonnel Douglas MD-83, as well as the second-deadliest involving an MD-80 in general behind Index-adria Aviopromet Flight 1308. It was also described as the second deadliest airplane crash on Nigerian soil after the Kano air disaster in 1973.
One year and three months after, another air accident occurred, involving Associated Aviation Limited Flight 361, which was a domestic charter flight with Embraer EMB 120 aircraft. About eight people died in the crash, which occurred less than a minute after taking off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on its way to Akure airport in Ondo State.
These accidents, many believed, would spell the death knell for Nigeria as far as FAA Category One was concerned. But the acting Director General of NCAA, Benedict Adeyileka explained that the accident did not happen because of any infraction in airspace safety standards or shortcomings in air traffic control, bad weather report etc, but on the decisions taken by the pilots of the flights.
“You know that in Nigeria, when there is an accident you report to the authority. After the authority has finished their investigation and finds that that the pilot has done what he should not do; if he remains alive, the only thing we can do is to take his license from him. If the airline has done everything by the book, you cannot penalise the airline. That is why we license them differently,” Adeyileka said.
NCAA Reacts
Reacting to comments in some quarters that the renewal of Category One certification as political, Adeyileka said: “This is lack of education. The reason I said it is lack of education is because FAA has autonomy from the Department of Transport.” He added: “There are technical questionnaires and boxes to be ticked.
The boxes are ticked when you have complied with the requirements. No matter your political influence, as far as the boxes or any of the boxes was not ticked you can never be given the certification until everything is in compliance. What that also tells us is that you must have to meet that given standard”.
He said the NCAA was able to facilitate and carry out the audit on behalf of the industry because those involved in providing the documentations for the audit took up the challenge squarely and blamed themselves whenever anything went wrong.
“How we managed to achieve what we achieved is that if anything goes wrong we blame ourselves. We blame ourselves by saying, what have we not done and in doing that we realise what we have not done, we don’t go on blaming one, another but we look at the problems;
we look at what caused the problem and how we can solve the problem. And then looked at how we can solve that problem in a way to prevent it from happening again. We moved forward because we have not been having repetitive problems. All the problems that were coming were new problems and that was why we were able to manage it,” he said.
With an NCAA that is fully autonomous and with a government that is supportive and ready to provide the funds for training, Nigeria may continue to retain the FAA Category One certification and all the gains that accrue to it.
In 2010, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded Nigeria Category One safety status. Nigeria secured the award after FAA was satisfied that the country met the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) standards.
After the Dana Airline flight crash in 2012 and the Associated Aviation flight crash, the media became awash with reports that suggested that Nigeria might not have been qualified for the FAA award, given the poor state of her aviation sector.
This prompted the FAA, to this year review the award, eliciting doubts from many Nigerians that the country would retain the Category One Safety Status rating.
The IASA is a programme established by the FAA to ensure that all aircraft registered outside United States that operate to and fro the US are properly licenced and are subject to safety oversight provided by a competent Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
The objective of the review was to ensure that Nigeria still maintains the safety standard in air transport, which enabled US to award Nigeria the certification.
Although, the criteria for the award were not known, there were fears that with the Dana and Associated Airlines’ crashes, Nigeria was on the way of losing the rating, which would have adversely impacted the aviation industry and set it backwards for at least 20 years. In addition to the crashes, there were political upheavals in the sector with the appointment and sudden removal of the then Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
After unnecessarily long interlude, government appointed a Director General to manage the regulatory body in acting capacity. Despite the many controversies this past seven months the acting NCAA Director General was at the helm of affairs, Nigeria, to the greatest surprise of many, still retained its Category One safety status.
The interregnum between the audit of the industry through the NCAA by the officials of FAA and the time the certification was re-awarded to Nigeria was a period of intense anxiety.
It was very obvious that some wished Nigeria would lose the rating, so that they could beat their chests that their criticisms of the industry were justified. Among these are some retired aviators, who felt their voices were no more being heard and are therefore no more as influential. Others are others who felt that recent changes in the sector did not augur well with them; so they would literally want the house to collapse.
So it was really disappointing and shocking to these individuals that Nigeria retained the safety status. No wanting to give, these individuals who have portrayed themselves ‘enemies of Nigeria’ have now labeled the certification, ‘political Category One’.
Benefits of FAA Certification
As FAA Category One country, there are invaluable gains that will accrue to Nigeria. This become manifest since 2010 when the country got the rating. One major benefit is that the Nigerian aviation sector is now rated highly in the world aviation industry. Also, Nigerian airlines now have easy access to credit facility from international financiers, and insurance premium for Nigerian registered aircraft is relatively low compared to what was it was in the past.
Again, by joining the Category One rated countries, Nigeria has become the attraction of foreigners who are interested to invest in the aviation industry. Already, more airlines have started operating into the Nigeria since 2010. According to the former Director General of NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, the attached benefits and growth propensity have been massive for the industry.
Akinkuotu observed that due to the enhanced safety rating, insurance premium for airlines had been reasonable, adding that the certification engenders much more favourable leasing/lending terms from financial institutions for Nigerian airline operators. This is a big plus considering the fact that 60 per cent of aircraft operating in Nigeria are leased.
Since 2010 too, the volume of traffic into the country had been increasing annually and there was an influx of scheduled commercial airlines operating into the regional hub for West Africa, including business and cultural exchange in the region.
“The industry has grown and the certification has made the industry attractive to foreign and local operators and Nigerian registered aircraft were able to fly directly to the US destination, unlike in the past when a flight from Nigeria must land in FAA Category One country before taking off to the US,” Akinkuotu noted.
FAA, had in its letter to NCAA late last year, indicated that it would come to audit the industry. Specifically, the US regulatory agency noted that the audit was in response to Nigeria’s media reports. THISDAY learnt that without such reports, FAA might not have decided to audit Nigeria again too soon, having awarded the country the status in 2010. Ordinarily, the certification has no tenure, contrary to general believe in the industry. FAA can decide to carry out an audit whenever it feels like doing so. Sometimes, it coul take up to 10 years.
Improvements
So much has happened in the aviation industry between 2010 and 2014 in terms of the provision of safety critical equipment and facilities. For instance, before July 2011, there were only 20 fire tenders available, but presently the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has 46 fire tenders. The fire fighters need to have their training facilities in Nigeria, so that they will stop going to Cameroon.
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), through the new Air Traffic Management system deployed under the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project, had greatly improved the safety of the Nigerian airspace.
The TRACON project has been completed with approach radar control in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. Area Radar completed in Lagos and Kano area control and this has significantly increased airspace capacity for the Nigerian aviation industry.
TRACON had significantly improved safety in the sector in addition to the deployment of control tower solar power for navigational aids which was unavailable for a long time and now Nigeria has six navigational aids and 11 control towers to its credit.
The NCAA recorded major achievements after the Category One certification in 2010 and one of these achievements was the deployment of flight tracking system, Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS) which was unavailable in the country before the FAA certification.
Also, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), which has provided low level wind share and new weather reading equipment and the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) had recorded various achievements that have enhanced aviation safety and security in Nigeria since the country attained the Category One status.
Some of these achievements include the AIPB now being able to download, extract, decode and analyse aircraft accident data from the CVR and FDR (Black Boxes) thus saving time and money for the country.
Air Accidents
On the down side, within this period Nigeria recorded one of the most tragic accidents in its history. It was the crash of Dana Air flight 992, involving a McDonnel Douglas MD-83 aircraft, which was on scheduled passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos on June 3, 2012. The plane crashed into a furniture workshop and printing press building at the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood in Lagos state and killed all the 153 persons on board and about 10 persons on the ground.
The crash was said to be the deadliest aviation disaster involving a McDonnel Douglas MD-83, as well as the second-deadliest involving an MD-80 in general behind Index-adria Aviopromet Flight 1308. It was also described as the second deadliest airplane crash on Nigerian soil after the Kano air disaster in 1973.
One year and three months after, another air accident occurred, involving Associated Aviation Limited Flight 361, which was a domestic charter flight with Embraer EMB 120 aircraft. About eight people died in the crash, which occurred less than a minute after taking off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on its way to Akure airport in Ondo State.
These accidents, many believed, would spell the death knell for Nigeria as far as FAA Category One was concerned. But the acting Director General of NCAA, Benedict Adeyileka explained that the accident did not happen because of any infraction in airspace safety standards or shortcomings in air traffic control, bad weather report etc, but on the decisions taken by the pilots of the flights.
“You know that in Nigeria, when there is an accident you report to the authority. After the authority has finished their investigation and finds that that the pilot has done what he should not do; if he remains alive, the only thing we can do is to take his license from him. If the airline has done everything by the book, you cannot penalise the airline. That is why we license them differently,” Adeyileka said.
NCAA Reacts
Reacting to comments in some quarters that the renewal of Category One certification as political, Adeyileka said: “This is lack of education. The reason I said it is lack of education is because FAA has autonomy from the Department of Transport.” He added: “There are technical questionnaires and boxes to be ticked.
The boxes are ticked when you have complied with the requirements. No matter your political influence, as far as the boxes or any of the boxes was not ticked you can never be given the certification until everything is in compliance. What that also tells us is that you must have to meet that given standard”.
He said the NCAA was able to facilitate and carry out the audit on behalf of the industry because those involved in providing the documentations for the audit took up the challenge squarely and blamed themselves whenever anything went wrong.
“How we managed to achieve what we achieved is that if anything goes wrong we blame ourselves. We blame ourselves by saying, what have we not done and in doing that we realise what we have not done, we don’t go on blaming one, another but we look at the problems;
we look at what caused the problem and how we can solve the problem. And then looked at how we can solve that problem in a way to prevent it from happening again. We moved forward because we have not been having repetitive problems. All the problems that were coming were new problems and that was why we were able to manage it,” he said.
With an NCAA that is fully autonomous and with a government that is supportive and ready to provide the funds for training, Nigeria may continue to retain the FAA Category One certification and all the gains that accrue to it.
Culled from www.thisdaylive.com
No comments :
Post a Comment
we will love to share your experience: