It is not enough banning Dana Airline from further operations
in Nigeria. This has happened before; all airlines whose aircrafts have had
fatal accidents in the past were banned from further operations in Nigeria and
that would be the end of government action until the next crash.
I think what is required should be a more drastic action that
will sanitize the entire aviation industry. The revelations following the Dana
air crash exposed the rot in the industry where operators seem to have
unanimously agreed to place profit above safety and compromise the lives of air
travelers.
There were claims even by staff of Dana Airline that the
management of the airline was aware the aircraft that crashed was not airworthy
and yet it was cleared for the ill fated flight.
There were also disclosures that the aircraft was old and
lacked proper maintenance. Indeed, the aircraft was reported to have been
bought from Alaska Airline in the United States. Alaska sold off all their
aircrafts in the category of the crashed Dana plane because it was prone to
accidents as passengers were saved by the whiskers on several occasions from
losing their lives in crashes that could have involved several passengers.
Indeed, the incompetence of Dana Airlines management became
even more obvious in the post crash information management. They muddled up the
names of passengers and released the names of all those who bought tickets for
the ill fated flight, not minding if they were all checked in for boarding. Consequently,
at least five passengers whose names appeared on the manifest had to publicly
refute the claim that they boarded the crashed aircraft. As a regular traveler,
I know you can only have your name on the manifest if you were checked in and
given a boarding pass. I’m indeed a regular on Dana Airline flights,
particularly on the Abuja – Lagos – Abuja route. I was actually meant to travel
on Sunday to Lagos for an official assignment but when I tried to book ahead, I
was told there was no seat left on that flight, so I settled for Aero, which
has lately joined the league of airlines with penchant for flight
cancellations, rescheduling or delays. Although, I prefer delays, rescheduling
or even cancellations than rush to crash.
So, even now, we are not sure how many people were on board
the crashed plane since some people have openly said they were not on the plane
and therefore their names should be removed from the manifest released to the
public.
Now, I believe Dana Airline should not be the only one
responsible for the crash. There must have been an agency involved in
inspecting and clearing aircrafts brought into Nigeria by the airlines; there
must have been an agency involved in clearing aircrafts for flights; there must
have been an agency involved in conducting periodic checks on aircrafts to
determine their airworthiness. I know these agencies exist and they are within
the domain of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). So, NCAA should rise
up now and tell the public when last they checked this aircraft and why was the
aircraft cleared for the flight?
I strongly believe that the entire aviation industry in
Nigeria needs URGENT repositioning. Incompetent people should be excused from
managing the sector; otherwise they will kill more travelers. Whatever caused
this crash can still cause another crash, if the issue is about the
airworthiness of the aircraft involved in last Sunday crash.
In addition to all these, Nigeria’s search and rescue profile
is appalling and something urgent need to be done on that too. Even the
President is not safe because no one is free from the consequences of
negligence in this sector. If the search and rescue team had been timely at the
scene of the crash, some of the passengers may have been rescued. The media
reported some residents around the scene said they heard some passengers crying
for help even after the crash.
If our hospitals have been turned into mere consulting
clinics while the rich flies to Europe for medical attention, none of them can
avoid the calamity that awaits all categories of air travelers if urgent steps
are not taken to fix the aviation industry.
Above all, the Nigerian system has the blame for the crash. All
sectors of the Nigerian system is either being mismanaged or have totally collapsed
and those driving the system seem to be looking the other way.
Our roads have totally collapsed; our hospitals are not just
mere consulting clinics but mortuaries; while other countries are reporting
their employment growth, we are releasing unreliable statistics on unemployment
with the near total collapse of industries resulting from lack of electricity
and cost of fueling production and service delivery.
For years running, the media occasionally report incidents of
power outage in our airports, including the biggest in the west coast, the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
I believe we deserve better than what we have in Nigeria, a
country where reports of theft of several billions of naira from the public
treasury is as constant as the northern star without corresponding punishment.
For now, the sitting government needs to declare a state of
emergency in the aviation industry. And this is very urgent.
No comments:
Post a Comment