Nigerian minister wrong on plane crash - lawmakers
09 Nov 2006 16:32:14 GMT Source: Reuters
By Camillus Eboh ABUJA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Nigerian lawmakers disputed a minister's contention that pilot error was to blame for a plane crash that killed 96 people on Oct. 29 and warned of further risks to aircraft due to poor infrastructure. Poor aviation safety is a burning issue in Nigeria, where three major plane crashes have killed 319 people in 12 months. The then minister of aviation, Babalola Borishade, said on the morning after the latest crash that the pilot of the ADC Airlines flight from Abuja to the northern city of Sokoto had ignored a bad weather warning from the airport control tower. But a report by the House of Representatives committee on aviation, obtained by Reuters on Thursday, said the tower had given no such warning. Air traffic controllers had an exchange about strong winds with another pilot but only after the ADC flight had taken off, the report said. "Contrary to the affirmative assertion of the ministry that there was inclement weather, there was no warning ... by the tower," the lawmakers said. "In fact, the argument as to the speed of the wind between the Virgin Nigeria pilot (of a later flight) and the tower casts serious doubt as to the integrity of information actually available to the tower itself," they said. After two crashes in October and December last year, President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked senior aviation officials, temporarily grounded several airlines while their fleets were audited and set up a panel to recommend reforms. But the government recognised this week that the panel's recommendations had not been fully implemented. The cabinet on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of 19 billion naira ($148 million) in funds earmarked for improving airport infrastructure that had been blocked due to red tape. The funds are aimed, among other reforms, at renovating control towers and installing new equipment. "GRAVE DANGER" The lawmakers said in their report on the ADC crash that Nigerian airports, including Abuja where the latest disaster struck, lacked crucial equipment to detect sudden changes in the speed and direction of the wind. "(This) appears to be a major infrastructural deficiency, which may continue to portend grave clear and present recurrent danger to safe operations of aviation in Nigeria," the report said. It did not offer an explanation for the ADC crash, pointing out that the aviation ministry's Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau had yet to complete its probe. After the ADC crash, some senators and other politicians called for the resignation of Borishade, whose time as minister of aviation has been marked by the three major crashes and several smaller ones. Obasanjo instead shifted him to the ministry of culture and tourism, while ADC has been grounded. Borishade made his allegations against the ADC pilot before the official investigation into the crash had begun. Aviation is one of many sectors suffering from the effects of mismanagement, corruption and neglect under military regimes that ruled Africa's most populous country almost continuously for three decades. Passenger traffic has more than doubled since the return to civilian rule in 1999 but the ageing fleets and airports have struggled to keep up and there have been a string of crashes.
