Last weekend was particularly tragic for the Nigerian aviation industry following the crash of two of its carriers. In all, more than 160 lives were lost. An Allied Air Boeing 727 cargo plane from Lagos crashed onto a bus as it was trying to land at Kotoka International Airport in the Ghanaian capital, Accra on Saturday night, killing 10 people.
This was followed by a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 flight from the capital, Abuja on Sunday afternoon that plunged into a residential area of Iju, in the Agege area of Lagos as it was getting set to land at Murtala Mohammed Airport. The accident left 153 people on board dead, including an undisclosed number on the ground, Thisday newspaper reported.
President Goodluck Jonathan, accompanied by the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola yesterday June 4, 2012 visited the crash site. The Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah had earlier visited the area on Sunday, promising investigations into the cause of the crash.
The Vanguard newspaper earlier this year reported that the Nigeria aviation industry in 2011 witnessed a relatively safe year with no accident involving programmed flights. The appointment of Stella Oduah last July and her subsequent replacement of the heads of key aviation structures brought some lease of life into the sector. Government last year announced the remodelling of major airports and later changed the plans to upgrading. So far, work has commenced on the Abuja and Lagos airports; out of the 12 airports to be upgraded.
Out of 150 active Nigerian airlines in 2001, the number declined to 19 in 2011 due to financial mismanagement and failure to meet industry policies. In an interview with Vanguard two weeks ago, a former Nigeria Airways pilot, Captain Tito Omaghomi, warned that another disaster was looming in the aviation industry as operators had started cutting corners and neglecting aircraft maintenance. He said the number of airline operators was declining and checks on aircraft becoming irregular with high chances of crashes if urgent action was not taken.
According to a January 2012 report by the American Embassy in Nigeria, the country’s aviation industry has grown rapidly in recent years and become heavily indebted because of losses caused by low fares, high interest rates, and rising fuel costs. Nigerian airlines owed 10 billion naira (about FCFA 32.7 billion) to Nigerian aviation agencies in 2011. Four major accidents between 2005 and 2006 led to the adoption of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) in 2006. The country also got the Federation Aviation Administration Category 1 flight safety status in 2010.
