Delta Airlines has apologised to Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria over its (Delta’s) failure to notify the agency of the emergency landing involving its Airbus 330-200 aircraft on Tuesday night.
It would be recalled that the3 Atlanta bound Delta Flight 55, which the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on Tuesday night returned several minutes later to the airport following an issue with one of the Airbus 330-200’s two engines.
Leading a team of the airline’s officials including the technical crew of the flight and the airline’s Lagos Airport station manager to AIB today, the manager, air safety investigation, Miss Shannon Masters expressed the airline’s regret for the oversight, stressing that it was not intentional.
“We sincerely apologised for the error and we promise to cooperate with AIB in the investigation of this occurrence,” she said.
Responding, the commissioner and chief executive officer of AIB, Mr. Akin Olateru, said AIB had already commenced investigation into the serious incident and welcomed the airline’s cooperation.
He said the agency had accepted the apology adding “we look forward to receiving cooperation from Delta Airlines as we work to determine the cause of this serious incident in the interest of safety.”
AIB had had frowned at the airline’s failure to notify it of the serious incident involving its aircraft in line with Nigerian air safety regulations and international practice.
The airline was believed to have notified the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the occurrence immediately in line with the US laws.
Nigeria, as the state of occurrence under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 is responsible for investigating any aircraft occurrences within her airspace. The State of registry of the aircraft and the airline may serve as observers.
