By Thompson ABISOLA
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall, Sadiq Abubakar, has said the aviation sector regulators have identified human errors as responsible about 70 to 80 per cent of aviation accidents globally.
Abubakar made the disclosure on Wednesday at the opening of a one-day seminar on Safety in Aircraft Maintainace Environment 2018 at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base in Kaduna.
The theme of the Seminar is ”Promoting Safety Culture in Aircraft Maintainace”.
The CAS, who was represented by Chief of Standard and Evaluation, AVM Charles Ohwo, said NAF was strongly determined to work with regulators and other stakeholders in ensuring that all operational as well as engineering units improve on their present standards.
“Recall that several reports worldwide have shown that aviation accidents are of events with human factors being the chunk of the accidents.
“The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Safety report found that 26 per cent of the accidents have maintenance cause event which started the accident chain,’’ he said.
Abubakar said with these startling statistics, it was essential to urgently address aircraft maintenace safety issues with renewed vision and vigour.
The Air chief said the aim was to enhance operational efficiency through reduction or elimination of platforms losses caused by avoidable accidents.
” I said “avoidable” because most of the ground accidents in recent times could have been averted.
“We are striving towards a zero-accident in the NAF and this is only achievable when all concerned accept the challenges with determined zeal.
“However the seminar is designed primarily to facilitate free exchange of views and ideas by major stakeholders and practitioners with the aim of enhancing safety practice in NAF aircraft maintainace .
“What is expected from this seminar, it should be inclusive in nature by providing a platform for genuine view and contribution on common safety factors generally being overlooked that affect maintainace standards,” Abubakar said.
He said the event was to also draw lessons from reviewed maintenance mishaps that would enlighten NAF engineers and technicians to avert future recurrence.
Earlier the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Air Training Command, AVM Muhammad Idris, said that the NAF Institute of Safety (NAFIS) has trained a lot of personnel who are expected to be safety practitioners in their respective units.
Idris said this year alone, the institute had trained 78 officers, airmen and airwomen with another 45 student pilots undergoing the safety officers course
“These efforts signify the high premium the service places on aircraft maintenace and aviation safety.”
TBI Africa report that a paper was presented, by Mr Tunji Agoro on Exploring the Impact of Safety in Aircraft Maintainace Environment.
Also, Sqn Ldr Peter Echeazu presented a paper on Understanding Armament Safety Procedures in an Aircraft Maintainace Environment.
