IMPERATIVES FOR AIR SAFETY- THE NIGERIAN FACTOR

Being a presentation by Olu Ohunayo
Head Research and Corporate Travel
Zenith Travel &Tours
At the Federal Ministry of Aviation Nov 29th, 2010

What is safety?
“it is a state in which the possibility of harm to persons or of property damage is reduced to, and maintained at or below, an acceptable level through a continuing process of hazard identification and safety risk management.”
Concept of Safety in Air Transportation
 Regulatory compliance
 Zero accidents or serious incidents
 Freedom from hazards i.e. threats to safety
 Error avoidance
 Attitudes of employees of aviation
The Era’s of Safety
 1st Era - safety improved as new technology and standard solves problem of previous equipment while isolated reactive improvement made in procedure and training which is usually after an accident or incident.
 2nd Era – this is usually termed the management system era, where organizations are more proactive and focused. They monitor service experience, making improvement while assessing management risk.
 3rd Era – here attention is paid to an organisation’s safety culture which nourishes the SMS in place. The SMS concept is an extension of the applicable management system.

 We can safely draw the following conclusions from the three eras:
 The relationship between technology and management system is straightforward.
 The relationship between management and culture is interwoven.
 That technology, management systems and culture are independent philosophies.
 Organisations must seek continuous improvement in each era to maintain high safety standard.
Safety Management Systems (SMS)
 Is a businesslike approach to safety? It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing safety risks. As with all management systems, a safety management system provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. A safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organization. It becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs (wikipedia).

 SMS is intended to support a move away from prescriptive regulations (which specify criteria that must be adhered to) toward performance-based regulations which describe objectives and allow each regulated entity to develop its own system for achieving the objectives. In other words, industry must develop its own policies and systems to reduce risk, which should include implementing systems for reporting and correcting shortcomings. The regulator then changes its emphasis from verifying adherence to the criteria to examining the organizational systems and their effectiveness.
SMS
 The most recent innovation with human factors approach in aviation safety is the introduction of Safety Management Systems (SMS).
 SMS is the focus on people rather than products or processes.
 Not a one size fit all, requires some flexibility.
 It is another layer in the safety process and not a replacement.
 Integrates human factors considerations across the whole organisation - Airline, AMO, ANSP, ETC.
 Defines sound system practices and procedures.
 Must not be induced by regulations alone, organizations should strive to make it a culture.
Safety culture is simply the way we do things = the Nigerian factor
 To have a safe culture we need management and leadership to compliment all other factors.
 Management and leadership have different functions.
 Management copes with complexity while leadership is about coping with change.
 Management place emphasis on analysis and control of resources.
 Leadership place emphasis on people with the objective of influencing the behavioral pattern.
 Management controls the SMS while leadership drives safety culture.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)
 Presently drives our safety culture in conjunction with other organizations.
 Using the informed and reporting process as a pivot.
 Collect, analyse relevant data and disseminate safety information promptly.
 By encouraging non punitive reporting process to enhance safety.
 By encouraging the principle of just culture; where errors will not be punished if unintentional.
 By encouraging Airlines, Service providers and other organisations to do same.
 Recently attained the necessary Category 1 status for Nigeria, which confirms our compliance with Annex 1, 6, 8.
CAT 1
 It covers eight critical elements of safety oversight system
 - Primary aviation legislation,
 - Specific operating regulations,
 - Civil aviation system and safety oversight functions,
 -qualifications and training of technical personnel,
 - Procedures and technical guidance,
 - Licensing and certification obligations,
 - Surveillance obligations, and
 - Resolution of safety concerns.

CHALLENGES BEFORE US
 We must strive to sustain and retain the CAT 1 status.
 We should work towards the ICAO universal safety oversight audit programme (USOAP) which is on going and covers all other safety related annexes.
 Co-ordination and co-operation among the agencies within the industry should be enhanced.
 Airlines should endeavour to pay for services provided promptly while also remitting taxes owed and collected on behalf of the agencies.
 Need to quickly fix the airports with models to rebuild, remodel and maintain them without recourse to public funds.
 We must address the sophisticated touting problem prevalent at our airports.
 Organizations should encourage and open communication with their respective unions and staff.
 Economic audit of our carriers should be improved upon to stop the rot.
 Ownership of our carriers should be open to all Nigerians to attract necessary public support.

Addendum
 The Fly America Act is applicable to all travel funded by United States federal government funds and requires the use of "U.S. flag" airlines (not to be confused with flag carriers) with a few exceptions. These individuals include U.S. federal government employees, their dependents, consultants, contractors, grantees, and others. It is also applicable to all US government contracts issued to US and non US companies
Nigerian Maritime Admin&Safety Agency (NIMASA)
 Section 36 of NIMASA ACT
 Gives exclusive right to Nigerian owned shipping companies to lift cargo belonging to the federal, state and local government. It also includes publicly funded agencies.

We need a Fly Nigeria Act
 Keep that publicly funded market with our carriers.
 To strengthen our carriers financially.
 To attract foreign investors and partners to our carriers.
 To generate employment for Nigerians.
 To reduce capital flight.


Thank you for Listening