• The Jabiru 430 light aircraft accident has brought to the fore the procedures to be adopted in handling crowd control, site protection, crisis communication and other challenges
Investigations into air accidents anywhere in the world present learning curves for operators, original equipment manufacturers, airport authorities, air navigation service providers, aircraft technical crew, regulators, investigative bureaus, emergency management agencies and others.
The probe into last Tuesday’s crash of a light airplane managed by Air First Logistic/Hospitality will not be any different in manifesting the attendant twists and turns before the initial preliminary report is released by the Nigerian Safety Investigative Bureau (NSIB).
But, the NSIB will be pulling through this exercise with unfolding contours, because it is its first assignment, with an expanded scope as the sole body gazetted by law to undertake investigations into all modes of transportation: air, land and water in Nigeria; a task many say will test its capacity.
As the authorities navigate the curves probing the Jabiru 430 aircraft crash, the collaboration will stick out as an essential component because such exercise requires the statutory inputs of the country of registry of the aeroplane, its manufacturers, the air navigation services providers and others central to the practice.
Besides, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which is a key partner in this probe, appears to have jumped the gun by absolving its Director of Airworthiness Standards from the ownership and operations of the airplane that crashed.
In what may appear as needless interloping, its Director-General, Captain Musa Nuhu, while distancing its Director of Airworthiness or the company he has an interest: Air First Logistics and Hospitality from the operations of the ill-fated aircraft, is courting reputational damage for the apex civil aviation agency, which is expected to be truly autonomous in the discharge of its regulatory duties.
Nuhu clarified: “It is unfortunate that everyone is talking about the crash already when the NSIB has not come out with its safety report on it. Some people want to demonise Gbolahan Abatan who has done a great job for us since he came on board. Before he took over the NCAA job, he was doing well as a private entrepreneur and in line with the civil service rules, he resigned properly from Air First Hospitality and Tours. The aircraft in question doesn’t belong to him, but he manages it. I think we should not demonise him for whatever reason.”
This operator/regulator tango, experts have warned, could trigger suspicion in the whole inquiry.
Besides, the crash also brought to the fore the role of first responders in providing technical and accurate information concerning the air disaster, when Lagosians and the entire global aviation community were misled that it was a helicopter that exploded into a building in the Oba Akran axis.
Experts have also frowned at the information provided by one of the emergency management agencies in the state and the number of people on board the aircraft at the time it crashed.
It is noteworthy that the air navigation services providers: Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA and the NCAA, which should statutorily provide information on the manifest contained in the aircraft’s flight plan were lacking in their responsibilities.
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Many hours after the NSIB released details on the accident, clarifying that it was not a helicopter, but a light aircraft; much erosion had spread on the information released by other agencies.
Experts have, however, raised concerns about the manner Nigerians flood air accident sites, either in a bid to rescue victims or to take photographs.
They have condemned such actions as they could lead to tampering with evidence that would be useful to the all-important probe because the spatial dislocation of the ill-fated aircraft has a huge role to play in the analysis of the components of the equipment.
Experts have raised an alarm over what would have happened if it was a bigger aircraft with hundreds of passengers and fuel that crashed into such a densely populated area such as Oba Akran Road in the bustling Ikeja axis of the metropolis.
As unimaginable as the effects of such a disaster could have been, fresh questions are being raised by industry watchers on the role of emergency management bodies, security agencies and airport authorities as to the best way to go about the situation if the pilots reported to the control tower that the aircraft was in distress and could possibly not make it to the airport.
Experts say given the situational awareness of the aircraft at the time of reporting such an emergency, there could be a possible cordon-off of the area to assist in handling the panic it triggered in the area.
Failure by relevant authorities to toe that line of thought heightened the anxiety of residents who were left with no alternative but to scamper for safety.
The long time it took relevant authorities to get to the crash site after the light aircraft was engulfed in smoke billowing on the flight path before it went down has exposed the weakness of the emergency response preparedness procedures by concerned authorities.
Sadly, the slow response of some authorities to get to the crash scene, experts say, calls for a recalibration of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of the architecture of emergency management.
As the NSIB begins the probe, it is expected to coordinate with local first responders to determine what hazards may be inherent at the crash site and ensure safe access to visit the wreckage. Its investigators are expected to conduct interviews with eyewitnesses and draw charts showing the debris field and any indications of how the aircraft hit the ground, such as the angle of impact, the distribution of debris and other details.
This, experts say, could assist in determining missing or damaged components and gaining a fuller idea of what happened.
Investigators, experts say, are to collect all the documents related to the plane, its crew and its recent flights for forensic analysis.
Expectedly, the investigative teams ought to look at technical aspects that might have contributed, in any way, to the crash.
They are also to look at air traffic control activities and instructions, weather, human performance issues such as crew experience and training, maintenance records, emergency response, safety equipment, aircraft performance and sub-systems.
A team is also expected to interview survivors, rescue personnel and subject matter experts.
Thereafter, the investigators should rigorously analyse these data, devise, test and evaluate different hypotheses for what could have happened in order to determine causes and contributing factors.
Within 30 days after the crash, the investigation team must release a preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the U.N.-related global agency overseeing commercial air travel.
Significantly, accident reports must include safety recommendations aimed at improving aviation safety and not to apportion blames.
Experts have urged authorities to be proactive and avoid knee-jerk reactions in handling air safety and related issues.
This may have played out in last week’s crash involving Jabiru 430 aircraft in Lagos.
To save the situation they say collaboration and technical partnerships must be pursued to enhance the safety chain in the air transport space.
Latching on collaboration, NSIB, at the weekend,, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) to enhance the safety and preservation of critical evidence at crash sites in case of serious incidents and accidents in all modes of transportation.
The pact is expected to foster their performance.
NSIB has also volunteered to train the over 200 staff of LASEMA in accident management.
At a ceremony held at the LASEMA office in Lagos, the Director-General of NSIB, Akin Olateru said that it was important for agencies and organisations to partner in the interest of the country.
Olateru explained that NSIB was not the first responder in case of an accident, but said it was necessary for the agency to partner with first responders such as LASEMA, police, the military and other critical organisations.
He explained that the partnership with LASEMA would further aid the accuracy of accident investigation and prevent the recurrence of such.
He lamented that the bureau had, in the past six years, made attempts to partner with some government agencies, but failed to achieve this purpose. He praised the management of LASEMA for agreeing to the MoU within five months it was proposed.
The NSIB boss declared that the new NSIB Act of 2022 empowers it to investigate serious incidents and accidents in all modes of transportation with the aim of boosting safety.
He said: “We had an initial meeting in March this year which resulted in this MoU that we are signing today. We have been pursuing some organisations in the past six years without success. Whatever MoU we sign with organisations, it’s in the interest of the country.
“We are not the first responders in case of an accident; we are investigators. The first responders need to know their roles and we need to know ours, too.
“We are happy to train the members of staff of agencies. This is necessary for them to know what we do and how we go about them. Evidence needs to be preserved at crash sites. Partnering with an agency such as LASEMA is good for our country. Lagos State is the size of four to five countries in Europe.
“We will be deceiving ourselves when if we say there will not be disasters. There will be disasters, but we need to partner for it and we need to reduce the impact of the disasters.”
Olateru also said that members of the technical staff of LASEMA would be trained by the Southern California Safety Institute of the United States of America (USA).
There is over 2000 members of staff in LASEMA, but Olateru said they would be trained in batches. The first batch would be trained before the end of this month.
The Permanent Secretary of LASEMA, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu said that the authority had signed MoUs with various organisations, including 25 United Nations agencies and a higher institution in the state.
Oke-Osanyintolu said that the MoU was to further assure residents in Lagos that the agency would always respond swiftly to any emergency management.
He further explained that the state government, in recent years, had expended billions of naira to equip the agency with the procurement of state-of-the-art ambulance vehicles and engagement and training of qualified personnel to manage disasters in the state.
He added: “We also say that disaster management is the responsibility of everyone. We are signing this MoU with NSIB to take care of the airspace in case of an emergency or disaster.
“When the unfortunate aircraft accident happened earlier in the week, we worked together with the officials of NSIB at the crash site and our effort ensured that there was no mortality in the accident.