By Daniel Eteghe
LAGOS — Experts in the aviation industry have condemned the Federal Government for not allowing Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, AIPB, to publish most of the accident investigation reports in the country.

They argued that in other parts of the world, accident reports were published in form of a book to enable pilots as well as the general travelling public know why accidents happened in order to avert a recurrence.

Former Nigerian Airways pilot and General Manager of defunct Concord Airlines, Captain Samuel Adewumi, said it was necessary for AIPB to publish accident reports for public consumption.

Captain Adewumi affirmed that when the reports were in the public domain, it would help to inform them on how to also be vigilant to ensure that developments that could endanger safety were averted.

He called on the National Assembly to pass favourable laws that would make it compulsory for AIPB to publish accident reports.

He said:  “The AIB since I knew them in 1978, has never published any accident report.   When they investigate, they should publicise it; people should buy the books and read what happened. The engineers and the management have to be aware of what is happening in all the departments.”

According to him, an incident occurred in Miami, Florida, United States of America, involving a $60 million Boeing 747 aircraft in 2001 which made a turn around in the ocean and the incident was reported and published, indicting the engineering department for forgetting to put the oil seal in the four engines of the aircraft.

He said it was expected of the AIPB to publish all accident reports, adding that was an avenue to get the truth of what happened during.

Also speaking, former Head of Flight Operations, Medview Airline, Captain Henry Olawole, wondered why accident reports were not published in Nigeria, stressing he saw no reason such reports should be kept secret.

Captain Olawole further said in the western world, every accident report is published for the public to be aware of the cause of the accident.

He said: “You can easily go online and read accident reports of any airline in the western world but here, they are keeping it a secret. So the question the press should be asking is: why are they (AIPB) not publishing it; why are they keeping it a secret.

“It is not punitive and it is not meant to punish anybody, it is to help flying pilots to learn from the mistakes of other co-pilots and prevent such accident in future.

“Sincerely, I wonder why they don’t publish accidents reports in Nigeria, maybe they don’t want the public to know, including pilots.”

Sheri Kyari, a member of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, noted that it was necessary for the AIPB to release it reports as that would better the lots of the industry.

He further stressed that it was better if the agency organised a stakeholders’ meeting before publishing its reports so as to have inputs from other stakeholders concerning that particular report.

He said: “The most important thing is that one would have expected the AIPB, once or twice in a year, hold a stakeholders’ meeting and then explain their work to the industry.

‘’Then in that area, you can also talk about passing your reports to stakeholders so that they can learn from what has happened, even if they are just incidences.”

‘’The report of AIPB’s investigation should be made available to the industry for its consumption and then NCAA will ensure that airlines are implementing a preventive measure that AIPB has seen in incidents or accidents reporting. ‘’When they do that, they will help the industry greatly but we have not have such a forum.  I think AIPB should hasten up, create a forum where stakeholders can come, they get their reports and see how they can help the industry in many ways.

‘’It is just like the recent incident where within two weeks various incident happened, where two aeroplanes collided at the tarmac, if they are able to investigate, they should come out and tell people, this is what happened.   If it is the fault of the crew, pilots are supposed to take care, if it is the fault of the marshaller, if it is the fault of the ground workers around the airport, they should be able to let people know that this is what happened so that corrective measures can be taken either by FAAN, by the airlines by cargo agents, whichever group of personnel that are involved,” he said.

However, Captain Sheriff Gbadamasi of Associated Aviation Services said  accident investigation and reporting were in phases, adding that he did not buy the idea of the reports being published in a book.

According to him, publishing accident reports can indict some people which could raise tension.

He cited the case of an American pilot who sued the United States government  for publishing his name as the cause of the accident when, in fact, it was an engine problem that caused the incident.

‘’May be that is the reason accident reports are not published in a book format in Nigeria,’’ Capt. Gbadamosi said.