To improve on the safety standard already attained after the last air crash in 2013, the National Association of Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has called on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to employ and deploy experienced safety personnel to carry out inspection of airline operations.
The Association noted that currently, the regulatory agency does not have adequate number of personnel needed with the attendant requisite experience because the salary emolument it pays cannot attract the qualified and experienced experts needed to ensure safety of airline operation in Nigeria.
President of NAAPE, Isaac Balami said after the crash of Dana Air Flight 092 on June 3, 2012 experts said that NCAA needed more operations and airworthiness personnel who will inspect and ensure the airworthiness of aircraft.
Balami said operations and airworthiness inspectors should be engineers and pilots that had spent many years working for airlines to gather the needed experience that would qualify them to be aircraft inspectors, adding that NCAA may not have such experienced personnel because of poor emoluments.
“No matter the academic qualification, anyone who has not worked and spent many years in airlines may not have the needed qualification to become aircraft inspectors. So what we are saying is that NCAA needs human capacity building. We need to train and grow indigenous captains, those that have put 10 to 20 years working for airlines.
These are the people that when they inspect airlines they know what they are looking for and under them no airline will be able to cut corners,” Balami said.
The NAAPE President said that NCAA should urgently improve the condition of service of these inspectors in order to attract the right personnel and also eliminate corruption, adding that one who earns peanut would be more susceptible to inducement than one who is not under pressure with the basic needs of life.
“Without such improvement in welfare and take home pay it will be difficult for us that have worked with the airlines and earned good salary to work with NCAA. And when you talk about job creation you train people and empower them. It is cheaper to have indigenous personnel than to have expatriates. There is not much training going on, except what Bristow, Caverton and Arik Air is doing. I heard the later has sent Nigerians to Germany for training. That is what we need,” Balami said.
NAAPE also said government must have to support domestic carriers, noting that the last time there was intervention fund in the industry it was to enable airlines pay their debts to the banks; not for the airlines to acquire new fleet or for manpower development, adding that many countries that have viable airlines support these airlines for them to operate successfully.
“When Kenya started recording few number of tourists because of the activities of El Shabab, Kenyan government wrote to the African Development Bank to give support to Kenya Airways. But in West Africa Ebola Virus Disease truncated air operations in the sub-region but no help came from government. Rich Nigerians fly Emirates and Qatar Airways but these airlines are able to operate successfully because of the support their government is giving them. The US supports their airlines and so do other countries,” Balami also said.
Thisday