"Nigeria’s airspace is the safest in the world" - Aviation Minister

     Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah says the Nigerian airspace is the safest in the world.

The minister stated this while fielding questions from State House Correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday.

She said that air transportation in the country remained the safest mode of transportation and debunked the insinuation in some quarters that the Nigerian airspace was not safe for both local and international flights.

“We want to also use this opportunity to tell Nigerians and to assure them that air transportation is still the safest mode of transportation. Our airspace is very, very safe.

“I listen and I hear people say our airspace is not safe, that is not true. We have the safest airspace in the world. We are very, very safe. What happened had nothing to do with the safety nets of our airspace, absolutely not. It doesn’t.

“And so I want to assure Nigerians that what happened on Sunday will not reoccur by the grace of God.

“We will do everything humanly possible to ensure that we enhance our safety policies and procedures and we are doing that now to ensure that NCAA becomes much, much stronger and their regulatory oversight duty is enhanced.

“With all the approvals we have gotten and with the transformation measures that is currently ongoing in addition to institutional reforms that we have started since the transformation commenced about a year ago, is on course.

“All these are to ensure that we have safe aviation sector in Nigeria.”

Oduah announced that the current airline economic regulatory regime would be reviewed in the next three months to make it more effective, current and relevant to the country’s safety needs.

According to her, the economic regulatory aspect of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will be strengthened to monitor domestic airlines on a regular basis.

“So, whenever we see signs that indicate danger we will be able to either shut down the airline or take precautionary actions so that we don’t get into a very bad situation.

“The safety measure in aviation is like the cardinal; it is not negotiable; it is not subject to discussion; it is what must be done and it is what is done on a regular basis; everything is safety.”

On the inability of government to release past reports on air disasters in the country, the minister gave the assurance that the reports would soon be made available to the public after obtaining the necessary approval from relevant authorities.

“When we get the proper approval to release the reports to the public, we will do so because it serves no purpose to keep it; it is for public knowledge, because there are lessons we should learn from such incidences and not allow it to recur; that is the purpose.”

Oduah revealed that the Black Box recovered from the crashed plane in Lagos would be sent to the United States on Thursday for thorough investigation of the crash

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Posted: at 7-06-2012 05:38 PM (11 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Hahahahahahahahaha yes madam even nigerian road is safest in d world. Nobody is complaining abt d air, we are talking abt over used planes dat are all over our airport. Nigeria is not dumping ground pls.

Posted: at 7-06-2012 05:56 PM (11 years ago) | Addicted Hero