Razaq Bamidele
The Nigerian public, stakeholders and professionals in the country’s aviation industry have been cautioned to desist from speculations and making comments on the ill-fated Jabiru J430 aircraft, which occurred at Oba Akran area of Lagos, on Tuesday.
The caution was dropped by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) through an interview by Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, with aviation journalists in Lagos, where he insisted that, “it is unprofessional to make categorical statements and comments on the cause of a serious incident or an accident when the investigators were yet to make their findings public.”
Oketunbi was particularly peeved by some statements attributed to some of the professionals in the sector on the accident, which involved two pilots, explaining that as professionals, they ought to know the rules guiding accident reports and standards and recommended practices stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisations (ICAO).
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He further explained that ICAO Annex 13 outlines the processes leading to the conduct of an accident investigation, stressing that, “it says that preliminary report should be released within 30 days of the occurrence and final report within 12 months of the occurrence following the completion of investigation.”
He assured that, as usual, NSIB would carry out a thorough investigation on the accident and release workable recommendations to prevent recurrence to the public.
Oketunbi cautioned that such speculations may ridicule the image of the country in the comity of nations and so appealed to commentators on the accident to wait for the outcome of its investigation before going to the public with their personal opinions.
His words: “People should stop all these insinuations about the immediate or remote cause of the accident. Whosoever that owns the aircraft involved in the crash doesn’t matter. This is an aviation industry, and we must not be seen to be commenting from the position of ignorance. Aviation is highly regulated, and we adhere to the standards and recommended practices of ICAO, which is the minimum.
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“Everyone should wait for NSIB to commence its investigation, come out with its preliminary and final reports, which we believe will prevent a recurrence. People should allow us to do our job. We cannot be influenced by emotions or speculations that are currently in the public space. As usual, we will be professional with our investigation and reports.”
Oketunbi also urged the media to desist from publishing inaccurate reports on the crash.
Recall a Jabiru J430 light single engine aircraft with the registration number: 5N CCQ crashed at Oba Akran in the afternoon of Tuesday on its way to Ibadan for a test flight.