The Chief Executive Officer/Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau, Engr. Akin Olateru, speaks about the challenges facing air accident investigation in the country and other issues in the aviation sector in this interview with OYETUNJI ABIOYE

You took over the leadership of the Accident Investigation Bureau in January this year. What are the challenges you have been facing so far?

Thank you very much. So far so good; there have been a few challenges here and there. If I say to you it has been an easy one, it is a lie. I am not new in government because I have spent time in both the public and private sectors.

However, I have spent more time in the private sector. So I am more of a private sector person. When you look at it very well, the public sector has a better system processes and procedures but the problem has to do with the main drivers of the public sector. Manpower level is a very serious problem in the public sector. It is not the processes that is the problem but the people driving the processes.

We are pushing ahead because we just have to make things work. That is the reason why we are here. Another big challenge is funding. You can have the best idea in the world but if you don’t have the funding to support your programme, you are just wasting your time.

Funding has been a big issue and I really want to thank Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, for his support. He is a supportive and dynamic leader. He has a sincere intention to make sure things work in the industry for the benefit of the flying public. He has been the driving force; pushing as much as he can but you need to understand that it is not all about him. So, there are a few challenges here are there but we are working through them.

How do you intend to tackle the funding challenge?

I am from the private sector and one thing is clear to us: you can never have enough funding for any project. That is vital. The most important thing in life is for an individual to be focused, have full understanding of the processes, excellent will to drive things home, and to be supported by the right institution.

I have the full support of the minister. Funding is a big issue as you said and the way we plan to go about it is to think out of the box. This is simple. We have other parameters out there but the only thing missing is how to raise the fund to make sure we meet our needs, targets and deliver on our mandate to the public. That is the reason why we are here.

So the way to go about it is to think out of the box. Don’t forget one thing: AIB does not charge for anything we do. We are not like the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, and Nigeria College of Aviation Technology that charge for their services. Under the United Nations charter, we are not allowed to charge for our services. So we must be creative in funding our projects.

The AIB is aiming to get some funding from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. Can you throw more light on this?

As I said, we have to think out of the box. Five out of the six aviation agencies under the Ministry of Aviation get five per cent of the Ticket Sale Charge and the Cargo Sale Charge. This five per cent is shares as follows: NCAA gets 58 per cent of that five per cent; NAMA gets 23 per cent; NIMET gets nine per cent; NCAT gets seven per cent, while AIB gets three per cent.

Don’t ask me how they came about this three per cent for AIB. When you look all the other aviation agencies, they charge for everything they do. The NCAA charges for pilot licensing, Air Operators Certificate, aircraft inspection and everything they do. NAMA charges for airspace overflying, navigational services and everything it does.

For NCAT, if you want to train or fly, it charges but we don’t charge for anything we do here in AIB; yet we were given only three per cent. I cannot contest that because it is in the Civil Aviation Act of 2006. To change that, we need to go back to the National Assembly. That is cumbersome and it will take a while.

FAAN gets zero from the TSC and CSC. FAAN ran to the minister to get an approval to charge what it called Passenger Service Charge. Now, FAAN gets $50 from every international passenger and N1000 from every domestic passenger. FAAN, over the years keeps 100 per cent of this money.

So what the Minister of State for Aviation has done is that, out of this 100 per cent give the AIB five per cent. I think that is still unfair. We should be given a minimum of 10 per cent. Why? Outside this PSC, FAAN charges for every service they render. They charge rents on every property they own at the airport including the lands; they charge for parking, car access through the toll gate, adverts etc. we are talking of billions of naira annually. Giving the AIB five per cent out of the PSC only is just very little.

To me, however, it is a good way to start. It will help the AIB to fund most of the pending programmes and support most of the investigation activities. When you look at the PSC, it is from the passengers. Who do we work for in the AIB? We work for the passengers. It is to keep them safe. It is about coming up with safety recommendations to prevent future occurrence to make sure our passengers are safe at the end of the day. That is the main reason why AIB is set up.

So if this is to help the flying public, then this is why we believe we should get part of the PSC. Let me correct something. This is not five per cent of the revenue of FAAN; it is just five per cent of the PSC, which is probably less than 20 per cent of the entire income of FAAN.

Some aviation unions are kicking against this move. What is your view on this?

I heard that and I said to myself: it is either they are wicked or they lack understanding. Who owns FAAN? It is the Federal Government. Who own the AIB? It is the Federal Government. Who do the unions represent? The staff. Do we have staff in FAAN? Yes. Do we have staff in the AIB? Yes. Do we have staff members in the AIB who have retired since 2013 and have not been paid their entitlements? Yes. Do we have staff members in the AIB whom we have recruited in the AIB since 2013 that we have not trained? Yes. I wonder who the unions are representing. Are they representing institutions or they are representing the staff?

I wonder why a union will say don’t give that money to that institution. It is not down to the union. This is an executive order; this is something that is an executive fiat. The PSC, in the first instance, was approved by the minister. The same minister is saying you should take five per cent and give to the AIB. If you look at the TSC and CSC, we all share it. Why is FAAN holding on to this 100 per cent?

Some stakeholders say it is not within the powers of the minister to approve the funding in question for the AIB. What is your take on that?

The charges in the Civil Aviation Act 2006, which is a public document, are the TSC and CSC. The PSC that is being charged by FAAN is not there. It was by executive fiat that the minister approved for FAAN to charge the PSC. This argument should not be necessary because we all work for the same government, working to ensure that passengers are safe.

FAAN interfaces with the passengers. The AIB, NAMA, NCAA, NCAT work at the back end. Passengers don’t see us. What the passengers see is FAAN (the airport, terminal building, and toilets). They don’t see the back end. This is why any union should not interfere in this. This is absolutely within the powers of the aviation minister.

Some accident investigators you recruited in 2013 have yet to go for any training since that time. Training is at the centre of what you do. How do you plan to train your people?

You are absolutely correct. We recruited 18 accident investigators in 2013. This is 2017 and they have not been trained in any form of any accident investigation programme. I think that is very unfair. You kill people’s morale if you don’t equip them with the right tool.

Yes, the report to work every day. Are they actively involved in what we do? Yes they would love to. But do they have the right skills? No. So what I have done so far is that immediately I came in, I found that it takes an average of $40,000 to train one accident investigator. If we recruited 18 people, you can work out the sum to know how much money we are looking at just to train them. That is just the ab-initio training for them to be accident investigators.

I have decided to approach it in two ways: one is to solicit for help outside the AIB for training; the second is to see how we can source an IGR for AIB in order to get money to train. Last week, a Singaporean team came in to Abuja to train us for five days in Abuja. I really want to thank the Singaporeans for the excellent move from them but we had to make the move.

Come September, the United States government is sponsoring one-week training for our accident investigators. I just came back from the US where I met the National Transportation Safety Board and they agreed to come in to train us for free. To train an accident investigator, it takes about six to eight weeks programme.

Another way is to pursue the IGR to train them. One is to push for the five per cent from FAAN. Secondly, we invested in a Material Science Laboratory. The Federal Government invested over N600m in this lab. Till date, that lab has not worked. All the equipment are just there. How do we intend to address this?

Part of my visit to the US was to bring in the head of Material Science Lab at the NTSB to come into Nigeria and do a proper assessment of the equipment we purchased and see how we can put things together for use as well as advise us on whatever we need to add to it to make it work. It is like you have a home, you need a bed, furniture, functioning kitchen and bathroom.

What we are doing now is to bring in these guys to come and assess what we have. In our budget this year, we have some money to buy some equipment. I just don’t want to buy just any equipment. I want to make sure I am buying the right equipment to make this lab work for Nigeria and the AIB.  This is why I am bringing the man from the US to evaluate what we have purchased and guide us in our future purchases so that we know we are buying the right equipment.

Today, we had meeting with the University of Lagos. Two months ago, we had meeting with the University of Ilorin. We are reaching out to universities to see how they can partner the AIB to use the Material Science Lab for research programmes. That way, we can earn some IGR from there. This is what we plan because it is another way we can generate revenue.

I have spoken with scholars about meetings; they send research students to South Africa, US, etc. As soon as we set up this lab, it will be the first of its kind in West Africa. It will add value to our educational system.

We have some private construction companies that can make use of the lab. This lab is not for accident investigation alone. It is for research programmes. We can earn some money from it. These are ways we are planning to deal with the issue of funding and training programmes.

We have signed an agreement with the Nigerian Air Force so that they can make use of our lab. Rather than the NAF taking their aircraft Flight Data Recorder Cockpit Voice Recorder to overseas for investigation, we have a lab in Abuja. They can use it. There are several programmes running concurrently on how we enhance our training capability, building capacity within the AIB and at the same time making more money for the AIB at the end of the day.

Nigerians will like to know why the AIB lab has not worked all these years. We read reports of plans to take aircraft engines overseas for investigation.

We have two separate labs in Abuja. One is the Flight Safety Lab. The Flight Safety Lab is to read the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder. The Material Science Lab is a different lab in Abuja. Let me give a simple example to explain.

You dropped your phone and the screen is cracked. Now you are not there to tell the story and somebody has come to investigate that incident. We want to know whether the screen got cracked before you dropped it or it was the impact that got it cracked. That is what the Material Science Lab does. It evaluates the materials. There are microscopes and different materials there to evaluate to see whether the failure was post or pre. It is part of the evaluation we do to guide us during the course of accident investigation.

The Flight Safety Lab had not worked for almost two years. When I came in January, I mandated the ICT department to investigate. After some troubleshooting, the lab started working. As I speak to you now, the lab is working. Last two weeks, we did four trial downloads, it worked. The Singaporean came and they used this same lab to train our people. It works.

For the recent air crash of an Air Force plane, we are writing the Force to use our lab. The one that is not functional right now is the Material Science Lab. The equipment are there in the boxes. What I am doing is to put them together to work.

For the aircraft engines going abroad, it is part of our processes; it is part of investigation programme. Like the Suntai plane, we have been working on it for some months now. We have got the ministerial approval for two of our engineers to escort the engine out of the country.

We got the approval 30 days ago but there is no money to send them out. It is absolutely necessary. We call it engine tear down. This is a process where you send the engine back to the manufacturer. This is not what you can do as an accident investigator.

You take it back to the engine manufacturer and they put it on a test bench to ascertain whether the engine was delivering power prior to the crash or there was a problem with the engine before the crash.

As you aware, what we do here is fact-finding; we don’t assume anything. This is why all these processes are very important and we make sure we go through them so that we can arrive at a result nobody can fault us.

We understand that most of your accident investigators are not proficient in the use of your lab in Abuja. What timeline do you have to get them trained on this equipment?

I will say this: we made a mistake when the equipment was purchased. It was treated as a purchase. You buy the equipment and then you start thinking of how to train people on its use. This is equipment that need to man 24 hours a day. This is equipment designed to run; not to be shut down. You need to recruit specialists to man and run the equipment. It is not something you draft accident investigators to come and run. This is one of the reasons the Singaporean came. We chose them because they similar equipment. They educated us on manpower manning. This was part of the reason they came.

Accident investigation is a very complex process. You are not allowed to assume; you must make sure you get it right. As I told you, I just came back from the United States; I met with the NTSB and went to their Material Science Lab. It is manned by material scientists, and not accident investigators. The man that heads the lab has over 40 years’ experience in material science lab alone. You need experts in different fields for you to do a proper accident investigation. It is not a one-size-fits-all. Your accident investigator does not need to know everything.

We need to grow ICT specialists such that what they do is to handle our Animation Department. This is a department that recreates the flight path. A plane has crashed; it took off from point A to Point B. You need to recreate that flight.  We have that software in Abuja. How do you do that? You need a sound ICT person that understands what we do to be able to marry the two together. These are things I am trying to do. It is about building institution.

How many accident reports are still pending and how soon will your agency release them?

We have 27 pending accident reports. In the next 90 days, we should turn out six. Two have gone out for what we call Public Review.  We have sent copies of the report to the aircraft engine manufacturer, aircraft manufacturer, Civil Aviation Authority, and user of the aircraft. What we do here is in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation Annex 13, and we have the guidance material.

Before we turn out any report, we send it out for 60 days for them to come up with any observation or comment. And that is the stage some of the reports are in right now. We got some feedbacks from Pratt Whitney, one of the engine manufacturers, last week. We got a feedback from Canadian Civil Aviation Authority and Bell Helicopters. We are going to collate that and rejig if there is any need before we publish the report.

The implementation of safety recommendations in your accident investigation reports are very vital because if it is not done, it is tantamount to no work done. How do you follow up to ensure these safety recommendations are adhered to?

This is a very major aspect of what we do. But you need to mindful of what you do. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the AIB represent Nigeria and we both have different roles. The NCAA’s role is to regulate the industry while the AIB has the role to investigate accidents and come up with safety recommendations for the industry to prevent future occurrence. Safety recommendations are our end products.

What I am doing is that I am setting up a department and all they are going to be doing is to follow up on safety recommendations. We are putting a data base to them. How many safety recommendations have we issued since the inception of the AIB and how many have we implemented? These will be a task for this unit. We are just about finishing that.  If you don’t make something a responsibility of somebody, you will never get it done. This is what I found out when I came here.

The ICAO will want to see our follow up on our safety recommendations. It is a very important point to them as well. For me, I have taken it upon myself; this is one of the very reasons for our existence. So we must ensure it is done.  For example, we gave a safety recommendation in OAS Helicopters crash that the Police should train its personnel on what they should do in the event of any accident.

The training borders on the need for the Police to cordon off the accident scene, ensuring sanity and maintaining law and order to ensure that the vital components of the aircraft wreckage are safe. We have had air crashes in this country whereby the FDR and CVR were missing. Till today, we can’t find them; and these are vital components for our work that are gone. So till today, we can’t really say these are the causes of the accidents.

So we have issued a safety recommendation to the Police; we wrote the Inspector General of Police on this. I have met with him on this. It is something very important that has to be enforced. We have asked them to put the training in their programme so that as you are joining the Police, you know what the FDR looks like; and you know what to do in the event of an air accident. We are signing an MoU with them even though it is at the draft stage. To make sure we are top of it, we have actually kick-started this training.

We didn’t charge any money. We made sure we trained the first batch of 20 police officers deployed from the Special Protection Unit and the Airport Command. The next phase is Abuja, another 20 police officers. The next state will be Zone 2, which is Lagos State and Ogun State. The next stage will be to go Enugu and two states around there; and then we go to Kano and take two states around there. By then, we expect the Nigerian Police Force to be alive to our programmes and support us. These are part of the things we are doing on our own to ensure safety recommendations are enforced.

The NCAA is on top of its game, doing what it is supposed to do in terms of safety recommendations. We don’t have any problems with airlines because they are complying. Dana Air, for instance, has complied with all the safety recommendations. We are using the NCAA to ensure that the airlines comply. It is full and strong approach. As the end of the day, we ensure we get value for everything we are doing.

How can the country’s aviation industry grow to compete with that of developed economies?

Several airlines have come and gone? I read a few articles in the newspapers and laugh. One big problem in this part of the world is that people don’t understand aviation. We see a lot of experts making uninformed comments in the media. The fact that you have been a pilot for 40 years does not make you an aviation expert. You are an expert in flying and full stop. If you want to be an expert in air transport business, you need to go back to school or get exposed in air transport business. Because you are an aircraft engineer does not make you an aviation expert. You are an expert in aircraft maintenance and that is all. Somebody said in this newspaper today that aviation needs to get its act together so that it can drive tourism. I think it is coming from the travel agency department. That is an absolute trash if you ask me. It is the other way round.

Tourism needs to get its acts together; security and infrastructure need to be in place in order for aviation to thrive.  No airline will fly to any destination where nobody wants to go; so how will aviation support tourism? You need to make sure a place or centre is attractive and people will be interested in seeing it before aviation will take you there. It is unfortunate that people don’t understand aviation. If we really want to grow aviation in Nigeria, it has to be taken at the level of the Federal Executive Council meeting. The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has a great passion for aviation; he has a great energy I have never seen.

He calls me around 1am, 2am asking questions about the industry. He is passionate about the industry. But the issue is that it goes beyond him. He wants to do magic, but can he do it? No. he cannot do it alone. One of the problems we have in this part of the world is access to cheaper funds. It goes beyond the minister of state for aviation. He can’t do it alone. It goes beyond the Minister of State for Aviation to say all aviation companies must get loan at eight per cent? This is a decision that has to be taken at the FEC level; it is a decision you need to commit the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor.

The Aviation minister can’t do it alone. If you really want the aviation industry to thrive, every minister must do what he/she needs to do. Tourism minister, Agriculture minister etc must do what they need to do. To plant in the Western world now, they use aircraft. Nobody uses hoes any more. It is aerial application. That is what Olam is doing in Nasarawa State now. They are using aircraft to plant rice, to spray herbicides, and apply fertilizers. That is 9000 hectares of rice farm. We need to move away from Abaliki style where we are supplying fertliser to 200 farmers. We need to go into heavily mechanised farming. In Nigeria, we have two or three aircraft that can plant.

In South Africa, we have over 1000; in United States, we have several thousands. How many aircraft are equipped to support the mining industry? It is zero. Go to South Africa, they have hundreds of aircraft that are geared to know the type of metal in the ground. If Health minister does not get it right, we are in trouble in the aviation industry. Look at the Ebola epidemic, look at the bird flu. Anywhere there is epidemic, aviation industry drops. It is a joint effort. Look at the Executive Order the Acting President gave.

Our minister alone cannot do it, because he is not in charge of Customs, Immigration etc. it is a collective action. Senator Hadi Sirika is an aviator but he cannot do it alone. He needs the support of other ministers. Aviation is not a standalone. Until we realise this fact, we cannot go far. For the airlines, you need to train them. Who are the people running the shows in the airlines? The airlines and the airports are the people the passenger sees. How well informed are our airlines in Nigeria. You have an approval to fly to London, South Africa etc as a Nigerian airline. If you don’t sell tickets to London from South Africa, then you are not there.

You have an Emirates Airlines that will sell such tickets and will take people seven hours of course and connect them again. Ethiopian Airlines will do the same. We need to train our airlines to do the same. There is a huge gap. Aviation is an international business; we cannot afford to re-invent the wheel. We don’t even have money for research. So, the industry needs a holistic approach. Look at Delta Airlines, British Airways and American Airlines that have been around for several decades. They have the normal access to funds and the best of expertise you can think of. Yet, they are interlining, signing agreements and buying into one another. How about here in Nigeria? Everybody wants to do it alone. You will burn out. It is not about how much money you have. It is about the right strategy. The summary is that we need an all-encompassing approach.

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