The commissioner and chief executive of the Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria (AIB-N), Mr. Akin Olateru has said that Nigerian aviation industry contributed at least $1.7 billion and created 341,000 direct jobs to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Olateru stated this in a paper entitled ‘Best practices in civil aircraft accident prevention and investigation for sustainable development of the transportation and tourism industry,’ presented at the 2020 National Tourism and Transportation Summit and Expo 2020, held in Abuja yesterday.
Spokesman for the AIB, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi said in a statement that the commissioner was represented at the event by the agency’s director of operations, Capt. Dayyabu Danraka.
Olateru said the $1.7 billion and 241,000 figures were released by the International Air Transport Association IATA), recently.
He said the pandemic caused a setback in the country’s aviation industry and called effective collaboration between air transport and tourism industry.
He said the two sectors need each other to thrive and develop the nation’s economy.
Olateru explained that air transport is part of a broader travel and tourism sector, widely recognised as world’s largest industry.
He emphasised that the industry, according to the World Bank Group, is an important enabler to achieving economic growth and development.
Olateru added that air transport in addition to facilitating integration into global economy and providing vital connectivity on a national, regional and international scale, also helps to generate trade, promote tourism and create job opportunities.
Furthermore, the commissioner said air transport and tourism complement each other, pointing out that tourism depends on transportation to facilitate the movement of visitors, while transportation industry depends on tourism to generate revenues for its services.
He described air accident and serious incident investigation and timely release of safety reports as catalysts for sustainable development in the air transportation and tourism industry in Nigeria.
He said no matter the transport mode, accident always erodes the public confidence in the safety of the transport system.
He said accident could lead to injury or death and cause environmental and economic disaster.
Olateru further said independent investigations into causes of accidents and major incidents help to prevent tragedies and accident recurrence, thereby playing important role in improving transport safety and bringing back public confidence in transportation which invariably leads sustainable development of transportation and tourism sectors.
He noted that that the Civil Aviation Act 2006 and the Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents) Regulations of 2016 are the instruments that form the legal framework upon which civil aviation accident and incident investigations are conducted in Nigeria.
He stated that the AIB has consistently carried out its duties in accident and serious incident investigations in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13.
However, he said a draft bill to establish a multi-modal transportation safety investigation system had passed the second reading at the national assembly.
He said the bill seeks to expand the scope of accidents and serious incidents investigation to cover the air, maritime and rail transportation.
He stressed that the experience garnered over the years in air accident investigation would be applied to the other two modes of transportation investigation.
