By Capt. Daniel Omale
I can understand the
national outcry when the minister of aviation lifted the suspension imposed on
Dana Air. I can also relate to the families who lost their loved ones in the
fatal accident on June 3, this year. The
sudden loss of lives in a major airliner accident is naturally overwhelming and
emotionally draining.
Air transportation
accidents, especially those in large passenger airplanes, make major national
and international news with outrageous reactions. In any case, natural or
accidental death of another human being usually saps other human beings’ state
of mind/emotion. Although, ultimately, we shall all die someday, the thought or
sight of death will always put us in a state of devastation, whenever a known
person or a relation is involved.
But banning an airline
that has been involved in an accident does not solve the problem of a repeated
accident. The only solution is to find the probable cause(s) of the accident
and proffer a solution to future occurrence. If Dana Air is banned from
operating in our national airspace, it does not mean we have finally prevented
future aircraft accidents. What it means is that another airline has been sent
into bankruptcy, and more Nigerians have been sent into the dungeon of
unemployment.
What Nigeria needs most at
this point is to demand from our government the cause(s) of that fatal accident
with a view to preventing future mishaps. From knowing the reason for the
crash, we can deduce and prevent future similar cases. This is what is
important, not an indefinite suspension of Dana Air. The minster of aviation
properly elaborated this view when she made the announcement of Dana Air’s
return to service.
Over the years, air safety
has improved tremendously: airplanes are more reliable, more dependable, with
improved safety measures .The only setback in flight safety or air
transportation is human errors. Human
factors account for more than 80% of all aircraft accidents in the modern
world. The core issue of air safety is how to overcome or minimize the fallibility
of man when operating a machine. Human-flight deck interface problems have been
on the forefront of aviation safety seminars, organizational safety management
systems, and air regulation authorities the world over.
For expert aircraft
accident investigators, air crash is not the problem, but the factors
responsible for the crash. An accident does not just happen; there is a series
of events that lead to a crash. Unless
the pieces of the puzzle are collated, analyzed and synthesized, it becomes difficult
to deduce the probable cause of an accident.
This is where the Aircraft
Accident investigation Bureau (AIB), an independent agency of the federal
government, comes into the equation. The agency, which reports directly to the
president, according to Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Act 2006, is the sole
authority in air crash investigation in the country. The nation should wait
patiently for AIB to come out with its report on the cause(s) of the accident
before raising undue alarm of a foul play.
As bad as the Dana Air
accident was, there have been worse fatal accidents in the recent history of
aviation, involving today’s celebrated legacy airlines. What led to the
improved safety records of major airlines like British Airways, KLM-Airfrance,
and American is repetitive, professional investigation into accidents and
incidents involving their aircraft, and the adoption of safety recommendations.
Again, an aircraft
accident, most of the time, involves elements of human errors. These errors or
factors must be studied to create reactive, proactive, and preventive regiments
of safe aircraft operation. Below are
two fatal aircraft accidents involving BA, and the reports of the
investigations into the cause of the accidents:
• 10 September 1976: British Airways Trident 3B; Flight 476;
near Zagreb, Yugoslavia: The aircraft had a midair collision with an Inex Adria
aircraft, DC9-32. All nine crew members and 54 passengers on the Trident were
killed. All five crew members and 108 passengers on the DC9 were also killed.
The probable cause of this event was failure of the Yugoslavian ATC system to
provide adequate separation.
• 22 August 1985: British Airtours 737-200; Flight 28M;
Manchester Airport, England: The crew rejected the takeoff due to an
uncontained engine failure. The failure led to a punctured fuel tank and a fire
that spread to the cabin. The accident killed 53 of 131 passengers and two of
six crew members.
British Airways has not
been banned or suspended by the British government. Today, BA is one of the
most celebrated legacy airlines, and probably the most loved airline by
Nigerians. It may sound funny to some people
in this country, but the major challenge facing aviation industry in Nigeria
today is not regulation / safety oversight, but critical human factor elements.
Without proper deductive
investigation to unveil the causes of aircraft accidents in Nigeria, mere
display of public emotions towards Dana Air, the government, or its agencies
won’t help to establish a solution.
The more Nigerians, after
every accident, distort professional investigation into the cause(s) of a
crash, the more we dilute the zeal to pursue the facts for future lesson.
Unfortunately, Nigeria’s
business environment is unhealthy for anyone. Public scorn alone is more than
any Act of God, an acute social retribution that mitigates a business’ economic
growth. If it can cope with the massive losses, Dana Air should be allowed to
operate and survive.
Captain Daniel Omale was a former instructor at the Nigerian Aviation College of Technology, Zaria and an aviation writer and analyst
