Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, on the ill-fated crash
involving a 23-year – old Propeller aeroplane belonging to the
Associated Airlines on October 3.
The upper legislative house asked the minister to re-submit a
detailed presentation on the incident.
Oduah, who appeared before the senate committee on aviation
in company with heads of the various agencies under her
ministry had limited her presentation to the information
retrieved from the black box of the aircraft.
The proceeding was however a dissapointment to many
Nigerians who had expected that with the minister's
appearance before the Senate on Tuesday, she would be
quizzed on the two BMW bulletproof cars purchased for her
by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority at a cost of N255m.
Oduah, who refused to talk to journalists after the exercise,
had explained that the Accident Investigations Bureau began
investigation on the data retrieved form the black box in the
airport's laboratory.
She also showed a two-minute video clips of the
conversations between the two pilots, adding that both
engines of the aircrafts were faulty and should not have flown.
The minister said the speed of the plane was not enough for
the engine to take off and that the pilot ignored the cco-pilot's
warning against flying the plane.
She said, "As minister of aviation the fact that we got
preliminary report in our laboratory without waiting for the
final report, showed that we have put in place preventive
measures."
She then went ahead to make a power-point presentation
which gave graphic and pictoral details of the state of the
various airports in Nigeria and how her administration had
been able to carry out a comprehensive transformation of the
sector.
But after listening for one and half hours, the Deputy Senate
leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, who represented Senate
President David Mark, said Oduah's explanation fell short of
addressing the circumstances that surrounded the crash.
Ningi said the minister should come up, at another date, with
details about the processes that led to the take-off of the
aircraft on the fateful day, especially those whose
responsibility it was, to have alerted relevant agencies on its
condition.
He said, "What we expect you, honourable minister to come
and tell us here is whether your investigation had revealed
those who approved the aircraft for the flight operation, the
manufactured date of the aircraft and the age of the pilot, we
learnt he was 64 years old.
"We also expect you to tell us when the aircraft was last
serviced and who supervised the maintenance and certified it
okay. Your explanation was just limited to the immediate
cause of the crash, we want you to come back and give us
those critical information."
Oduah commended the Senate leadership for showing
understanding and she pledged to return on another date with
the information requested from her.
She had earlier said the aviation sector was in a deep rot when
she took office in July 2011 and that the sector was a sad tale.
She noted that all the nation's airports were characterised with
obsolete, unserviceable and unavailable safety and security
before she took over.
Attempts to speak with the minister after the event were futile
as she simply walked past the newsmen who had waited for
her to go out of the hearing room.
Via: Punch
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