The Commissioner Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB Nigeria, Engr Akin Olateru has stressed that it is of paramount importance to do everything that would contribute to substantial reduction of the human factor failure in air transportation.
In his opening remarks at the conference on prevention of human factors in air accident occurrences organised by the AIB in partnership with the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) with the with the theme: “Preventing Human Factors in Air Accident Investigation”, Olateru explained that human factors knowledge can be used to reduce the likelihood of errors and build more error tolerant and more resilient systems.
Olateru who was represented by the director of operations, AIB, Capt. Dayyabu Danraka observed that the need to take all available measures to reduce the contribution of Human Factors in aviation accidents.
The AIB-N boss explained that accident prevention should primarily focus on training and human capacity development, regular maintenance of the equipment, technical support, competency in the conduct of air traffic control, organisational and operational control issues as well as general welfare of all personnel involved in the operation.
Olateru noted that it is necessary to focus on the most frequently occurring air accidents, such as the Controlled flight Into Terrain , CFIT, runway excursions, overruns and loss of control of the aircraft, including focusing on the phases of flight especially at its beginning (takeoff) and end (landing).
In his remarks also, the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu called for a critical review of the relationship between the live ware components and the other components of the aviation ecosystems and devise means towards achieving safe aircraft operation thus preventing accidents due to human errors.
Nuhu stated that all accidents regardless were global tragedies and unraveling the causes ensures for effective safety recommendations
The director general also stressed that human factors in aviation occurrences is most times seen as the negative consequence of the live ware dimension in an interactive ecosystem.
Speaking on poor communication between cockpit and control tower, President of National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Engineer Abayomi Agoro stated that poor communication and training on new facilities are needed to improve the situation in the air space.
He explained that airlines are not compliant with some of the new technologies introduced and even staff are not gone through their training.
Agoro said, “The issue of communication has been something we have been calling on government and NAMA as service provider to do more on it. The poor communication is not only from the ground equipment at times also it is from the air stations but most of the time these are some things that can degenerate to incidents or accidents.
“Even now that we have data exchange which has to do with the CPDLC not all the airlines are compliant with that and not all the controllers have gone through the training so definitely, it’s one of the areas we have to look critically into to prevent human factors we are talking about”.
Buttressing his point on paucity of communication, Representative of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Akin George said communication system in Nigeria is best described as weak.
He said,” The communication system in Nigeria is quite weak; this has been a recurring problem for the last 10-15 years. Solutions have been put in, we take one step forward and within a month or two we are back to the norm.
“We have been talking on human factors today and we know one of the critical elements is communication, if you cannot communicate with your controller; then who is controlling who? As of today the communication between aircraft and the services coming out of Kano to Lagos is extremely weak. If you happen to be operating from the eastern side of the country, coming out of Calabar or Uyo, Port Harcourt and you’re heading towards Kano, it’s extremely weak, in most cases you have to get another aircraft to rely your information”.
This is just as the National coordinator State Safety program, NCAA, Dr. Etete Ifeanyi emphasized the role of the Quality assurance Manager within an organization stressing that their jobs need to be protected as part of the gamut for creating a system with fewer accidents.
Dr. Etete who spoke during the panel session accentuated the role of the Quality assurance Manager within an organisation, stressing that their jobs need to be protected as part of the gamut to creating a system with fewer accidents.
Ifeanyi said,” Quality Management must be an independent system that can report directly to the CEO and the CEO should also be part of that quality assurance system. Why will he report to the CEO, because maybe director of operations, maintenance they don’t want any kind of interference and then it expends on the culture in that organization. What the CAA does is to audit what the quality assurance system has already audited that is what our job is supposed to be because he or she is the eye of the CAA within that organization”.
