Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah has said that the preliminary report of the ongoing investigation into the last Thursday’s plane crash will soon be released.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents on Monday, the Minister however said the full report will take a while because experts would be flown in from France to examine the engine.
She said, “We are still on it. The preliminary report should be out in a couple of weeks. The experts that are coming from France and the manufacturer of the aircraft, we must have them regardless of how we want to accelerate it.
“We are waiting for them to come so that we can open the engine and find out exactly from them. And you cannot do any of those without their presence; if you do that then you have contaminated the investigation, so we must wait for them”.
An Associated Airlines plane conveying the remains of a former Governor of Ondo state, Olusegun Agagau crashed last week shortly after takeoff from the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
Ms Oduah also spoke on the decision to once again suspend Dana Airlines, saying it is in line with operational issues that are ongoing.
“Again those are operational issues. And the law, the policy says that the assessment, the certification is ongoing.
“In aviation, security and safety measures are work in progress, you don’t stop. You don’t say that I have attained this and so we stop, it never stops.
“You continuously, constantly assess operators to make sure they are in compliance.”
The Minister seized the opportunity to reassure Nigerians that the country’s airspace is very safe in spite of recent air mishap, describing it as an inevitable act of God.
Her words, “We have the safest air space. Nigerians shouldn’t be afraid to fly, Nigerian airspace is very safe. We do not pray for accidents but it is inevitable. But all we do is to do everything to ensure that we do not have accidents. But is an act of God!
“There is no seminar; there is no conference where Nigeria has not been given what you call a exemplary role. For instance tomorrow (today), we are hosting global space conference, Nigeria is hosting it! We are not hosting it because we can afford it, we are hosting it because we are exemplary. Every nation wants to emulate what is it that we have done within such a short time to be able to have a safe air space.
“If you are talking safety for instance, you need to have the infrastructure that address that, if you are talking security you need to have the infrastructure that address that and all that must be sustained and must be maintained. And if you do not do that you are not just being sincere.
“And so everything we have done has been with security and safety as pivotal of it all. You cannot do anything in aviation without this. And what saddens me really is that ICAO says just last week that Nigeria is way above the global average, we actually scored 65 per cent. Secondly, ICAO says Nigeria is the 12th safest aviation globally”.
