By Ayo Yusuf
The efforts of the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to investigate charges that the near crash of a private plane carrying Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, was caused by sabotage may be jeopardised by the shortage of highly qualified technical staff in the industry.
Governor Adeleke had on Sunday confirmed that his narrow escape from a plane crash on Tuesday, 5th September, at the domestic wing of the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, was the result of tampering with the plane’s engines.
The private jet which was owned by his elder brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke, was attempting to take off from Lagos for a journey to Abuja when warning noises from the engines immediately prompted the pilots to direct evacuation of the passengers.
A statement from the Spokesperson of the Osun State Governor, Olawale Rasheed on Sunday blamed the engine troubles on subversion.
“Contrary to the claim by the hanger owner that birds’ nests caused the incident, birds’ nests are made with straws not bidding wires as in this case.
“The near-fatal incident was averted shortly after boarding and less than two minutes after commencement of taxing on the tarmac.
“An early warning noise from the engines immediately prompted the pilots to direct evacuation of the passengers. Everything happened within five minutes.
“Early reports from the internal investigation indicated sabotage. But the authorities, locally and internationally, are still investigating the incident.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau have initiated a thorough investigation into the incident.
The Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, disclosed this in a press statement on Sunday. The statement partly read, “A full-blown investigation of the incident has since commenced.
“While expressing relief that the incident ended without any harm, the Honourable Minister, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, assured that the outcome of the NCAA’s investigation and recommendations will be implemented in line with Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations and global best practices.”
However the Nigerian aviation industry may not be in a position to expedite any thorough investigation of the incident as most of its top technical personnel leave the country in droves to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, has recently lost dozens of its Air Traffic Controller (ATC) instructors to greener pastures and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has seen many of its technical personnel depart in droves as well.
No fewer than 100 ATCs have retired in NAMA in the last five years, and 40 more are expected to leave the stage due to age or length of service, yet there is no proper plan for their replacement.
About 50 percent of the top staff who retired from NAMA recently are being reengaged due to inadequate ATCs and other technical staff in the agency.
There are further fears that absence of qualified instructors at NCAT may affect training of students for piloting, engineering and ATC training for the industry, which may lead to further brain drain in the sector.
The source said that Sen. Hadi Sirika, the former Minister of Aviation, before leaving the stage, recruited about 90 cadet controllers into the system, but none was qualified for ATC as they are yet to embark on training at NCAT.
The source alleged that the recruitment of the controllers by Sirika didn’t go through the due process, major reason the recruits are yet to be fully engaged by NAMA.
NATCA source said: “There are only four ATCs at Ilorin airport for instance and one of them is even an operations manager who is not supposed to be in the control room, but he has to still put himself on the roster so that he can serve as a relief to other controllers.
“Controllers do the bulk of the job at NAMA, yet we are poorly remunerated…
“Before Sirika left, he quickly gave approval to the engagement of about 90 cadets, but they are yet to go to Zaria and to be an ATC; you will spend about 18 months and another six months as on-job-duty (OJT) and then if the person is so good, he can be recommended for NCAA exams, which will enable him to work in any of the agencies.”
The NCAT source predicted that more ATCs would in the coming months abandon NCAT for either NAMA or places outside the country which may further affect developments in the industry.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) Act 2022, recognises six different ratings for ATC and an ATC is paid allowances based on each rating.
The ratings are aerodrome, approach, procedural control, terminal approach radar, aerial radar and precision.
