Experts in the Nigerian aviation industry has called for critical review of the relationship between the liveware components and others in the industry’s ecosystems and also devise means to achieving safe aircraft operations in order to prevent human error accidents.
They reiterated the role of a Quality Assurance Manager within any organization and stressed the need to protect their jobs as part of the gamut for creating a system with fewer accidents.
They spoke at a one day symposium organised by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in conjunction with the Accident Investigation Bureau AIB-N in Lagos with the theme “Preventing Human Factors in Air Accident Investigations”.
Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu stressed that human factors in aviation occurrences is most times seen as the negative consequence of the liveware dimension in an interactive ecosystem.
He said: ”Every aviation accident is a global tragedy and the industry, through the accident investigative authorities must be determined to unravel the probable causes, contributory factors and develop appropriate Safety Recommendations that are based on safety risk assessments and considerable cost-effectiveness and the regulatory authorities must enforce their implementation by certified entities and licensed personnel to prevent reoccurrence and improve safety records.
“The Liveware is the non-standardized, most critical, least predictable, most susceptible to the effects of internal and external changes, as well as the most flexible component in the system and therefore must be carefully adapted and matched to other system components in order to avoid stress within the system and prevent its eventual breakdown.
Also speaking, National coordinator State Safety program, NCAA, Dr. Etete Ifeanyi said, ”Quality Management must be an independent system that can report directly to the CEO and the CEO should also be part of that quality assurance system. Why will he report to the CEO, because maybe director of operations, maintenance they don’t want any kind of interference and then it expends on the culture in that organization. What the CAA does is to audit what the quality assurance system has already audited that is what our job is supposed to be because he or she is the eye of the CAA within that organisation.
“The quality assurance system in any organization should cover each and every department in every unit of that organization and the basic function of the quality assurance system is the adequacy of the procedures and policies and compliance with the regulatory requirement to conformance with the procedures.”
Representative of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Akin George posited that the efficacy of the quality assurance manager depends on the system run by the organization which may make or mar it.
He said, “One of the key items that will be looked for in human factor is the culture of the organization and the regulator but within the organization itself, if you have a culture where communication is open where there is respect between the employee and employer then it is easier for both the organization and personnel to communicate back and forth.
