Following the two recent aircraft accidents involving two Nigerian? airlines -? Dana Air and Allied Air in Lagos? and Accra, Ghana respectively,?? the Federal Government has said it would make the International Airline Transport Association Safety Audit (IOSA) mandatory for Nigerian airlines.
Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),Dr. Harold Demuren, who? revealed this yesterday during the Ministerial Safety Seminar holding in Abuja, said this would further improve the safety of the Nigerian airspace.
Demuren, who lamented the two fatal accidents involving Nigerian airlines said they happened four months short of the nation celebrating six years of zero accident in civil aviation.
He said these accidents occurred after Nigerian airlines? have successfully carried about 50 million passengers, operated more than one million? flights and grown the traffic by almost 40 per cent in the last five years.
Demuren also said the Civil Aviation Act of 2006 that created an autonomous civil aviation authority and domestication of the Cape Town Convention for the acquisition of modern aircraft and other safety initiatives resulted in enhancing safety measures in Nigeria, including the passing of ICAO audits and attainment of American FAA CAT 1 Certification.
He described the accidents as a devastating blow to the industry and a major setback to the reform agenda of the Federal Government.
Demuren urged African countries to adopt the AFI safety improvement plan which would? give them tools to improve safety.
Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Odua, who declared the conference open, decried the unimpressive rating on aviation safety in Africa based on the number of aircraft accidents recorded in the continent.
Oduah stressed the need to enhance aviation safety, adding that the conference was aimed at providing? practicable recommendation that would enhance aviation safety in Africa.
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