Personnel from Singapore and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have arrived in Nigeria to train the technical personnel of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) on the use of flight safety laboratory as well as evaluate the laboratory prior to its update.
The Singaporean team is led by Mr. Michael Toft while ICAO is headed by Mr. Caj Frostel.
AIB commissioner, Mr. Akin Olateru said in Lagos that Nigeria decided to call on Singapore for the training of its personnel on the equipment as the Asian country has the same equipment.
He described the laboratory equipment as unique stressing that only Nigeria has the state-of-the-art facility among the West African states.
“We wrote to Singapore because they have the same equipment as ours and graciously, they have agreed to support us with the required manpower and training. The team will be in Abuja to train us on how to get the best out of this equipment.”
He also said a team of accident investigation for Banjul Accord Group (BAGAIA) from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) arrived in the country from Canada for the same purpose.
Olateru explained that ICAO wanted the entire West African countries to benefit from the laboratory, assuring that with the full usage of the equipment, Nigeria would be a force to be reckoned with in accident investigation.
“Also, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of United States has agreed to come to Nigeria to train our investigators, which will come up sometime in September. They have also agreed that we should send our investigators to them to do the On-the-Job training in their establishment.
“So, these to me will really help AIB because at the end of the day, it’s about building an institution. Building institutions is not just about buying equipment, throwing money at people, it’s about giving them the right exposure, which goes a long way. To me, within the next two years, we will build a very strong institution in AIB, which can take the lead and support the entire West African countries,” he said.
