AIB, Air Peace trade words over report of incidents, accidents

A row broke out yesterday between the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and Air Peace Airline over alleged refusal of the carrier to report incidents and accidents that occurred during commercial operations.

While the bureau alleged that the airline had formed the habit of non-disclosure of cause of incidents contrary to provisions of aviation regulations, the airline, however, denied the claim, saying the recent incident in question was reported to the apex regulator – the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

However, Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, in a reaction, said when the incident happened, the airline reported to the regulatory agency, the NCAA, and also wrote to Boeing and the manufacturer of the aircraft’s engine – CPM International.

“When the incident occurred, we followed the aircraft manual, which guided us on what to do when such incident occurred. We wrote to Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer and also wrote to the engine manufacturer, CPM International. We also grounded the aircraft.

“We always report any incident to NCAA and sometimes you may not know what to report to AIB because the NCAA is the regulatory authority and the Bureau is in charge of accident investigation.

“So, when incident like hard landing happens and you inform NCAA, we feel we have followed the procedure. Boeing has written back to us and has told us what to do. According to the procedure, currently, inspection is being carried out on the aircraft,” Onyema said.