The Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria (AIB-N) is to hold a one-day conference to educate stakeholders on how to reduce high rate of human errors in air accidents, Mr Akin Olateru, Commissioner of AIB-N said, in a statement, in Lagos, on Tuesday.
“The conference is expected to educate airline and airport operators, aviation agency personnel, aviation reporters, accident emergency responders and other stakeholders.
“This is on measures that can help reduce human factors in air accident and incident occurrences, while equipping aviation reporters with more knowledge for accurate reportage of accidents and incident occurrences”, he said.
Olateru observed that like majority of accidents, aviation disasters were preventable if the necessary precautionary measures were put in place and observed.
The AIB-N commissioner said the conference, which would be held physically and virtually, would be attended by no fewer than 300 industry stakeholders, including airline operators, airport operators, investigators, safety inspectors, pilots, engineers and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC).
He, however, said due to the COVID-19 protocols, physical participation was limited to only 80 guests, while others would join the conference virtually through the Zoom network.
Olateru also noted that the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) would be better equipped to report reduction of high rate of human errors in air accidents, especially because the association had on several occasions promoted air and ground safety in the industry with robust professionalism.
He identified some of the human factors that induced air accidents to include inadequate training of technical personnel, poor facilities, fatigue and poor communication between the cockpit and the control tower.
“After analysis of the several accident reports released since 2017, it has become apparent that about 75 per cent of these accidents and incidents have resulted from human factors.
“This conference is part of the fulfillment of AIB’s mandate of preventing accident occurrences and reoccurrence and public advocacy for accident situational management.
“LAAC is a dependable ally in this project, considering the various conferences that the association has held in recent years, which have impacted the industry positively”, Olateru said.
The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika is expected to be the Special Guest, with the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Musa Nuhu, as Keynote Speaker and Olateru as the lead facilitator.