AIB Didn’t Execute N1.7bn Charting Contract

Accident Investigation Bureau has denied a report that it got and wasted a N1.7 billion contract for  charting of the flight route undertaken by the ill-fated Wings Aviation Beechcraft 1900D, which  crashed last year, enroute Bebi Airstrip, Cross River State .
Reacting to a recent media report on the crash, the Bureau’s Head, Media Affairs, Tunji Oketunbi, said “we hereby deny that we spent N1.7 billion on a charting contract or any contract for that matter for two reasons. The entire budget of AIB for a year is not up to one billion naira. It is, therefore, unimaginable how the Bureau would spend N1.7 billion on a contract. Besides, AIB is not a service provider and is not involved in the charting of Nigerian airspace. The allegation was therefore, misdirected.”

Oketunbi said, “it is important to stress that the concept of not apportioning blame by AIB is neither its own decision, not  is it peculiar to Nigeria. As a matter of fact,  operations of AIB and that of similar bodies in other countries are guided by Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the global regulatory body for aviation.

“The sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be  prevention of accidents and incidents. It is not the purpose of this activity to apportion blame or liability,” he said.

Globally, occurrence investigations are carried out in order to better understand the events leading up to the occurrence; identify hazards and conduct risk assessments; make recommendations to reduce or eliminate unacceptable risks; and communicate the safety messages to the appropriate stakeholders.” 
He stressed that “there are other bodies responsible for sanctions and possible prosecution of criminal negligence or acts. The regulatory body and the security agencies can step in where necessary even as judicial panel of enquiry can be set up by the government. We, however, must remain within our brief and focus on the overall objective of accident investigation, which is to prevent future reoccurrence and not hunting for culprits.”

Oketunbi said the bureau was  more concerned with allaying fears in the minds of people who could be in position to offer useful information crucial to the success of the investigations; adding that “to guarantee the sustainable availability of these necessary data or information, which are needed for the reconstruction of the accident flight the source must also be protected.

He stressed further that “it is also important to note that human errors have underlying factors, which are mostly rooted in organisational and environmental issues. So either changing people or punishing them without a critical look at the issues behind their unsafe acts may be missing the point.”

Thisday caption story