Nigeria Records Two Fatal Civil Accidents In 10 Years

The Director General, Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Engr. Akin Olateru says “in the last 10 years, there have been two fatal civil accidents leading to the unfortunate loss of 9 souls” in Nigeria.
Delivering a paper at the 7th Aviation Africa Summit held at International Conference Centre, Abuja, Olateru said between 2005 and 2023, 78 accidents and serious incidents have occurred in the country with four incidents in the Safety Bulletin amounting to 82 while 260 safety recommendations have been issued by his agency within the period with 12 incidents in the Safety Bulletin totaling 272 safety recommendations.
Explaining the legislative changes and transition of legislative responsibilities over the years, Olateru said “there were 154 accidents, 46 of which were fatal between 1948 and 2005 with a total fatality of 1,445 passengers. Initially, Civil Aviation Department (CAD) of the Ministry of Aviation handled aviation occurrence investigation as well as Airworthiness Certification. This created a peculiar challenge – The Regulator had also become the Investigator! How could the Regulator be expected to objectively investigate herself and hold herself accountable in cases were contributing causes of occurrences were traced to poor or non-existent regulatory oversight function and enforcement by her.
It was becoming clear that we had to re-jig our Aviation safety regulations and Accident Investigation and bring them to par with relevant ICAO annexes and international best practices.”
Olateru’s paper was titled “Nigeria Evolving Approach To Aviation Safety And Learning From Occurrence Investigation-The NSIB Experience.”