Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has said that 70 per cent of air crashes in the country were caused by regulatory inefficiency and negligence by government agencies in the industry.
The Executive Chairman of AON, Captain Nogie Meggison made this statement while speaking at the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) Safer Skies Forum in Lagos.
Meggison said “We need to start looking at landing aids and landing areas at airports because over 70 per cent of air crashes in Nigeria are linked to negligence on the part of aviation parastatals and oversight deficiencies of regulatory agencies.
“For instance, the ADC Flight crash in Abuja on 29 October, 2006 was due to air traffic control issue; Wings aviation crash was due to wrong charting of the airspace by the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), while Associated Airlines plane was on ground for 24 months before it was taken to the skies.
“We need to look at the issues and not sweep issues under the carpet in Nigeria; we have issues ranging from bad drainage of runway surface to failure of air traffic controller to properly monitor runways, among others.”