• Absolves Director Airworthiness over ownership of aircraft
Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu urged the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), to accelerate its probe into the crash of a light airplane that came down along the Oba Akran Road in the Ikeja axis of the Lagos metropolis.
He said there was no link between the ill-fated aircraft and the NCAA’s Director of Airworthiness, Engineer Glolahan Abatan, who before assuming duties at the regulatory body ran Air First Logistics as his company.
Nuhu said suggestions that Abatan owns the crashed aircraft were far from the fact, as his firm was only involved in providing services to the owners of the equipment.
Nuhu, who cautioned against any castigation of the regulatory body said the NSIB has the capacity to undertake the task of finding out the reasons why the airplane crashed.
Speaking during a Zoom meeting, he said the crash was unfortunate noting it was premature to adduce reasons why the light aircraft came down.
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Describing any comment on the cause of the crash as unprofessional, Nuhu said : ” The Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has the capability to investigate the cause of the crash.
“I cannot comment on the cause. It is very unfortunate and it was just by the grace of God that it wasn’t disastrous. I have full confidence in the ability of the NSIB, people should avoid mere speculation, NSIB will release the report very shortly but what I have found disappointing is the comments against the. Director, Airworthiness Services. The Director of Airworthiness is very competent and before he was seconded to the NCAA, he had a life, he does not own the aircraft, he submitted letters of resignation from all the companies he worked for, and he is even the one that has identified some of these illegal fuel companies, despite unnecessary dragging of his name.
“Abatan 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.”
On the forthcoming audit, Nuhu disclosed that the Authority is working 24 hours to close some gaps identified at some airports, revealing that the audit would take place from August 30 to September 11, 2023.
Nuhu has stated that the new civil aviation regulation that stipulates at least six aircraft for start-up airlines was deliberate to ensure the health of any airline that is coming into the aviation industry
He, however, admitted that many of the country’s airlines do not have the capacity to meet their current financial obligations.
He said: ” If you have three aircraft for instance and you lose one out of it, it has become a problem to meet up with your operations. Then, you start to have issues with flight delays, cancellations, and all that. The number of aircraft you will have will depend on the kind of operations you want to do.
” You can imagine somebody who comes in with just one or two aircraft and one of the aircraft goes out of business, and sell tickets to the passengers, think of what will happen. For you to have six aircraft, it shows you have very strong financial backgrounds of running an airline.”He noted that the acquisition of six airplanes is not only for new entrants, stressing that the old ones too have a period by which they have to comply.“If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurrent problem. We have to avoid that. People will criticize, but every country is different. We have to look at our own peculiar history and try and come up with solutions, but regulations are not cast in stone. If the situation changes, the regulation would be reviewed accordingly. Whenever it is necessary, we don’t have to wait for five years before we make amendments,” he added.The aviation regulatory he further stated is trying to institutionalise NCAA; make it a proper institution so that the standard across the board is maintained, noting that it is still an ongoing process.
Speaking on some milestones achieved in the sector, Capt. Nuhu disclosed that there are more aircraft in Nigeria’s registry than in the entire West African states including the number of airlines, AOC, airports, and companies.
“From records, about 12 years ago, we had only 16 AOCs, right now, we have 32, out of which 12 are scheduled operators. We cannot keep operating the way we are operating. Changes have to come in and we have started the process; we are acquiring regulatory software in the next one or two weeks. We are going to be ready with the software and training of our staff is going to start on the use of the software. It is a three-year programme and at the end of the period, we are going to make sure that 80 to 90 percent of NCAA processes are automated and also the third party is going to be automated.”