From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has condemned the string of air incidents in the country describing them as pure regulatory laxity and not acts of God.
Keyamo said this at an ongoing technical meeting with key aviation heads on Monday evening in Abuja.
The meeting, convened by Keyamo, was to brainstorm and marshal out ways to boost aviation safety as the rising number of incidents was a pointer that a major disaster may be underway.
He said: “As a government, we are very sensitive to public opinion. We will not close our eyes and close our ears too to concerns raised by Nigerians.
“My view has always been that if an incident happened anywhere in our airports that is not the act of God then there is a failure of regulation somewhere.
“If there is a burst tyre of an aircraft, you can’t give excuses. There’s someone who was given the responsibility to check the tyres before the plane takes off. So, you can’t say it’s an act of God. A burst tyre is not an act of God, it is an act of man.
“If the runway is not fit enough to land or maybe it was wet and it skids off the runway. There’s a failure of regulation. There was a dispatcher who dispatched that plane. So, if these things happen and we don’t see sanctions, we don’t call out the people who are involved then I have failed as a minister and that is why they are all here today.
“We need to review these incidents. We need to get a technical report of what happened. Pending those reports, we must take precautionary steps to ensure the safety of the lives of Nigerians.”
Details later…