Plane Crash Averted in Kebbi
WHAT would have been a terrible accident involving 545 intending pilgrims from
Kebbi State to Saudi Arabia was averted early yesterday by the pilot of the
Boeing 747, a plane belonging to Max Air.
It was gathered that the aircraft with registration number N5-MBB developed
serious technical problem that resulted in three abortive take-offs.
Though badly shaken by the experience, the pilgrims who disembarked from the
faulty aircraft were grateful to Allah for what they described as a great
miracle that to saved their lives. No casualty was recorded.
The state government has directed that the intending pilgrims be provided with
hot meals while moves were being made to provide another aircraft to airlift
them.
In a related development, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has ordered arrest
and detention of four officials of the Hajj operation who were alleged to be
involved in short-changing intending pilgrims of their Basic Travelling
Allowance (BTA).
The governor gave the directive following complaints from 24 victims of sharp
practices, many of whom are women. He raised a four-member committee headed by
his Chief of Staff to ensure that those short-changed are refunded their money
and the culprits appropriately sanctioned.
Meanwhile, in a bid to forestall frequent plane crashes in the country, the
Nigeria Air Force (NAF) is taking steps to strengthen its standard operating
procedure for enhanced performance. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has
been signed with 15 universities in Nigeria to boost research and development
in aircraft maintenance and other diverse areas of interest.
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, made this known
yesterday at the opening of the 2015 NAF Standards and Evaluation seminar in
Abuja. “Once you have a sound standard and evaluation branch, people will be
operating according to standards, you are not likely going to run into
problems with safety,” he said.
According to Abubakar, safety is one of the core functions of the NAF and as
such, all efforts are required to develop, implement, maintain and review
strategies “to ensure that our operations are conducted within acceptable risk
levels.
The administration places high premium on adherence to established norms and
standards, therefore the achievements, failures in management functional
system of the service and the identified problems as well as recommendations
should be made for possible adoption.”
While noting that his vision for NAF includes promoting and inculcating the
core value of integrity, excellence and service delivery, the CAS stated that
accountability and prudent management of resources must be adhered to, as high
value assets including personnel are entrusted to the various formations
across the country.
Source: Guardian
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