Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, recently reacted to calls by the House of Representatives for his removal by saying that as a professional, he would not join issues with the honourable members as politicians.
Speaking during an interview with journalists at the Christmas service held at the Garden Tomb in Israel where he prayed for the safety of the Nigerian airspace and passengers, Dr Demuren said, “The National Assembly members are politicians. We are not politicians; we are professionals doing our job. The truth will come out and when it comes out, it will set everyone free.”
He further explained that for six years, no flight accident was recorded by airlines in Nigeria.
“It is very unfortunate that we had that tragic accident and for that to happen, you must not forget that this is why we gave thanks to God that from 2006 to that June last year, we have carried 50 million passengers and operated 4 million flights without a single accident, and then suddenly that accident happened.”
Dr Demuren also disclosed that the NCAA is set to deploy Aircraft Automated Flight Information Reporting System to improve air safety in the year 2013. He explained that the Aircraft Automated Flight Information Reporting System will alert the authorities if there is any problem on board an aircraft, whether the aircraft is missing or not.
“If anything happens on board, whether it is recorded or not, once it happens, automatically, it would record the data based on hours and stream the data to us. Whether the aircraft is missing or not, you still get and see the data,” he said.
“The good thing is that this data can be easily animated and you will see it in real life how it happened and what occurred. That way, there will be no speculation. You can log from it, learn from it and then correct it.”