FG Plans Safety Week for Dana Crash Victims, Unveils Cenotaph

Federal Government will today, [Monday] honour the victims of the tragic crash of Dana Air flight J9-992 which killed over 157 people at Iju/Ishaga, Lagos on June,3,2012 to mark its one year remembrance by unveiling a cenotaph.

In lieu of the honour, the Ministry of Aviation has instituted a safety week which will be observed from June 3, 2013 and this will be done every year in the honour of those who lost their lives in one of the most tragic accidents in the history of air transport in Nigeria.

Matthew Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese,  would lead the church service for the crash victims, while Stella Oduah, minister of Aviation, would be the chief host and the ceremony would climax with the unveiling of the cenotaph.

The safety week would kick off with the appraisal of the actions that had been taken by the Ministry of Aviation and its agencies to improve safety in the sector and the lessons learnt by concerned authorities over the tragic crash.

Mr Yakubu Dati, general manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN said that many safety critical equipment has been improved upon since the Dana Air flight crash, adding that all the government agencies in the sector have not rested on their oars but have continued to work to improve safety of flights and comfort of passengers.

Dati said issues of safety and security have been given priority attention with the implementation of the Technical and Administrative Review Committee (TARPDA) recommendations of which over 80 per cent of the recommendations already implemented.

“In the last one year there has been improvement in the area of communication, navigation and installation of modern surveillance equipment in all the airports in the country. There have been massive training and human capacity development of Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) and other technical personnel of all the agencies in the aviation sector and just few days ago the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) flagged off the area radar control, which will further reduce the time of flight, so the Lagos to Abuja flight that used to be 55 minutes will be reduced to between 40-45 minutes, thereby saving airlines huge amount of money in fuel cost.”

Dati said that the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has grown into a continental player with its global recognition recently with the award of ISO 9001; 2008 on Aeronautical Meteorological System (QMS) audit, noting that few African countries have attained such feat.

“The remodelling of airport terminals which has enhanced passenger facilitation has elevated the country’s airports to international standard with world class facilities in almost half of the 22 airports in the country already benefitting from the programme. This of course will contribute significantly in improving air safety in the country.”

On what has been done so far in the area of compensation, Dati noted that the initial 30 per cent compensation was paid to about 90 relatives of the victims, while 72  victims’ families had gone to court to demand for higher compensation beyond the $100,000 contained in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations.

“The Ministry of Aviation has initiated a programme, the “Victims Family Insurance Programme,” which is designed to provide additional compensation in case of future occurrence of air accident in the country and this is in addition to the plan to set up airlines operators insurance compensation,” Dati disclosed.