NAAPE's Macabre Dance

Finally NAAPE came out of the trenches after shadow boxing all these while through the legislative arm of government, the response has been quick from the graduate engineers, through their professional body while stains and stones have filtered to other unions and professionals that have made comments in support or against any of the warring group. I sincerely hope this age long rift will simmer and all parties will see reasons why they must work together and kick start a seamless safety relationship. We must be careful of what we say, publish and do with respect to safety, or the option will be to kiss CAT 1 status goodbye and start a rigorous process of recertifying. Ghana lost the FAA Category 1 in 2005 and Indonesia sometime in 2007 lost the CAT 1 status and are still struggling to retain it, despite improved efforts and investment. Back in January 2008, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), after undertaking an International Aviation Safety Assessment on the Philippines, downgraded the country’s rating to Category 2 from Category 1. The US Embassy subsequently issued a warning to US citizens in the Philippines “to refrain from using Philippine-based carriers due to ‘serious concerns’ about the alleged mishandling of the aviation industry,” in effect blacklisting Philippine air carrier the European Union, following the FAA’s lead, also blacklisted the Philippines and banned Philippine carriers from flying to Europe. Other countries such as Korea and Japan have also used the ICAO, FAA and EU findings as basis for not allowing Philippine carriers to expand services into their respective territories, beyond existing traffic rights previously granted. Till date the Philippines is still a CAT 2 country Also in 2008 the US reflected concerns about Israel's oversight of private aviation, rather than about its commercial carriers or security matters, despite his closeness to the US, Israel lost its CAT 1 status. They were frozen out for four years and only returned to the elite club two months ago. Australia almost lost the CAT 1 status too, due to what was described as parliamentary under privileges with the senate by the state owned investigating agency. It had to lobby using all contacts to avert it. Our greatest challenge is non-adherence to airline reciprocity by our carriers and their inability to attract commercial partnership which has hindered the provision of millions of potential new jobs to aviation and other sectors, while at the same time not attracting foreign direct investment, rather frequency and gauge are being increased by foreign carriers. We cannot afford to include safety and it is erroneous and presumptuous to use the DANA accident as a barometer to rundown our safety achievements when investigations is on going.

The Senate Resolutions: Good, Bad & Ugly

The National Assembly recently passed some resolutions with respect to events in the industry; in unison we can applaud some of them while the others are either bad or ugly. The directive to the Central Bank to recover funds given to Air Nigeria is commendable, with four aircraft parked in the cold in Hampshire, England awaiting the lessors’ decision and another parked close to the GAT graveyard without engines. It is clear that Air Nigeria has turned round the turnaround expert. This is a sad story, since this airline was flying without an investor or intervention fund sometime ago in this country and it was managed by a Nigerian. We are all to blame for its demise starting from the staff, unions, AON, UBA, Govt e.t.c. The funds in question are not missing - United Bank of Africa, must be made to pay to the last kobo, they fronted, guaranteed and had a financial adviser stationed with the airline. The directive of giving full disclosure of all investigative report of past air accidents is a soothing balm to the industry and nation in general. It will uphold and safeguard the safety initiatives. It will also expose some pretenders who keep parading the corridors of power for one favour or the other, and in their hallucinating state think we have forgotten about the past. The directive to compel NCAA to ensure all airlines involved in accidents settle all outstanding insurance obligations and ensure that all airlines have adequate insurance cover as required by the regulations is also a good one. They should go further and ensure that owners or managers of such airlines do not return to the industry in another name or designation without offsetting their liabilities. The directive on returning the Air Field Lighting System to FAAN is also commendable. I agree that the air traffic controllers have a better view of the runway and will obviously be in a better position to determine the intensity of the lighting system. The Ministry did not follow due process in transferring the department; these agencies are governed by an act, which should be amended, not by ministerial fiat. On the MD 83’s they are still flying without issues round the world, I stated sometime after the crash that Air Burkina & Air Mali are using those aircrafts to ferry Air France passengers to points beyond Ouagadougou and Bamako, while our airlines with brand new aircrafts are overlooked for such commercial agreements. The same aircraft has been picking Nigerian troops from Abuja and other African troops or officials under the auspices of the United Nations, will the UN use an unsafe aircraft with its LOGO emblazoned on it? The directive setting passenger aircraft age limit at 15 years and cargo at 20 years is not a panacea to air crashes; rather it will drive some carriers out of the market, increase unemployment and fares. Is it the airframe or the engine that must have this age limit? What happens if the airframe is 16 years and the engines are 3years? Please let us leave the status quo and allow the regulators do their job, in line with air worthiness directives from reputable international agencies. The directive asking the government to revoke the licence of DANA Airlines is a bad one; the airline has just been recertified by NCAA and some other airlines are going through that process. If the Legislature views the certification of DANA despite having an international AMO as partner is faulty and the NCAA cannot be trusted, it means all other AOCs issued by the NCAA should be revoked with immediate effect; anything short of this is RACISM. I just pray their country of descent will not target Nigerian investors too. The priority should be payment of compensation to all. The directive demanding for the removal of the DG and the dismissal of the Engineer saddled with the inspection of the ill fated DANA aircraft is distasteful, hasty and ugly. Rather, a speedy investigation and conclusion of the accident report should be our priority; at that point there will be no place to hide for every one anymore. What is playing out right now is the age long rivalry between the academically qualified engineers and those that rose through the ranks, which has metamorphosed into type qualified and type rated. We have gotten to the stage where industry experts and consultants that supplied the Legislature with information should come out boldly and defend their reports, information and allegations individually or collectively rather than hide under the ambit of the hallowed chambers. I do not believe the demand of the Senate is based on tribal sentiments as espoused in some quarters rather it is based on some information that look mischievous emanating from the cocktail of submissions made before, during and after the public hearing. The DG should not be tagged with incompetence based on his record so far, he should rather be decorated with national honours for elevating the regulatory institution rather than being hounded disrespectfully. Let the senate hang proven corruption charges and breach of contract on him, the tide will change ferociously. ROSAVIATSIA, the Russian equivalent of NCAA was almost pushed last year by their parliament, the DUMA to revoke the licences of some airlines due to air mishaps. The Agency resisted and conducted their investigations. Red Wings Airline only last week lost its AOC in that process. The Russian regulator said they are losing the licence, not because of the air crash they had on the 29th of December 2012, but due to the numerous significant violations found during recertification. Also, the airline lacked financial resources to provide ongoing operations consistent with appropriate level of safety. This is processes and procedure without interference but requisite oversight responsibility by all parties. We are scaring investors. We need to stop the bickering and attract them by capitalising on our CAT 1 status.