Olusegun Koiki :
Less than 24 hours after the Accident
Investigation Bureau (AIB) released its preliminary report on the
helicopter crash involving Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Kabba Kogi
State, Caverton Helicopter has promised to adhere strictly to safety
procedures as required by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act.
A
statement by its Managing Director, Capt. Josiah Choms said that the
helicopter company would also adhere to other relevant local and
international regulations across all its operations.
The statement hinted that the airline would continue to take safety and security of its clients with high esteem.
He
said: “The management of Caverton Helicopters wants to thank the public
and our esteemed clients for your prayers and overwhelming support.
“We wish to assure the public of our unflinching commitment to the provision of safe and reliable air transport services.”
Recall
that AIB had on Wednesday attributed “brownout” to the cause of the
aircraft crash involving Osinbajo and 11 others at Kabba,, Kogi State.
In
a bid to forestall recurrence of such accident in the future, AIB
issued two “immediate safety recommendations” to Caverton Helicopter,
the operator of the crashed helicopter and the industry regulator, the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The Commissioner of
AIB, Engr. Akin Olateru in a briefing with journalists said that NCAA
should issue an Advisory Circular to all helicopter operators flying in
Nigeria to be alert to the possibility and effect of brownstone, while
appropriate procedures should be put in place to mitigate its effects.
Olateru
in its safety recommendation to Caverton Helicopter, Safety
Recommendation 2019-003 stated that the operator should ensure that
flight operations are carried out in accordance with the company’s
approved operations manual vis-à-vis, the survey and proper safety risk
analysis are done before dispatching any flight to unapproved landing
posts.
AIB also released the preliminary accident report with 17
initial findings among which was the occurrence of a brownout while
landing.
Olateru explained that brownout in helicopter operations
is an in-flight visibility restriction caused by dust or sand in which
the flight crew loses visual contact with nearby objects that provide
the outside visual references necessary to control the helicopter near
the ground.
The preliminary report emphasised that the helicopter
company did not conduct site survey of the landing field prior to
flight, adding that the company did not also carry out a safety and risk
assessment of the landing area prior to the dispatch of the flight.
The
initial findings also indicated that the bureau could not conduct drug
and alcohol tests on the pilots and according to the weather report
obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), the prevailing
conditions were good, but that the aircraft hovered to land in a brown
out condition.
Olateru, however, said the conclusive report would
make a lot of other areas clearer especially after analysis of data
from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) information and the Flight data
Recorder (FDR) as well as analysis of data from the Health and Usage
Monitoring System (HUMS) and Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) coupled with
interviews from witnesses and further inspection of the crash site.
Source:- Independentng
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