Stories by David Agba
With agencies
The commissioner of Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Dr. Felix Abali has attributed the inability of pathologists and coroners to submit their final findings on the October 4, 2013 Associated Airline’s plane crash in Lagos as the major reason the agency is yet to publish the final report on the accident.
Speaking in an interview in Lagos, the commissioner said if the pathologists and coroners were through with their report of the accident which resulted in the death of no fewer than 16 out of the 20 persons on board onboard had been resolved, AIB would have released its final report on the crash.
He said it would be unprofessional for the agency to release the final report without looking critically at the inputs of pathologists and coroners and assured that such challenges would be resolved very soon.
To resolve such challenges in the future, Abali said AIB was working with a major pathologist in the country who he said had lots of connections with some of the hospitals in different states of the country.
“That takes us back to the problems we are having with coroners and pathologists. We are actually still waiting for their reports. Accident as you know could be caused by a lot of factors. Assuming that one of the crew members was drunk, how do you determine this? It is through pathologists’ reports that you can know the true state of health of such crew member.
“If we don’t have such information, then the report is incomplete. We cannot go and publish something and leave out some aspects. What we have been doing is that we try to come to an understanding with them. We have been trying to write a memorandum of understanding with them.
“As a matter of fact, we have started working with one of the pathologists who basically has a lot of connections with some of the hospitals in different states. These hospitals will work with this individual who will just report to us. If that works, I think the situation would be alleviated,” he said.
Abali assured that the Nigerian airspace is safe despite some accidents in recent time.
However, he said aviation accidents cannot be eradicated, but it can be reduced to the barest minimum.
“Aviation industry is safe globally and will always be safe. Till now except the one that happened over Ukraine that the people know its cause, the other two or three, we don’t know the causes yet and I think in accident investigation, it is not always right to speculate. It doesn’t do the industry any good and it will not enhance safety in the system.
“Until the black boxes are discovered and the true causes of the accidents are known, we won’t be able to comment much on them. But, I want to emphasise here that aviation is still the safest mode of transportation anywhere in the world,” he said.
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