BEING THE SPEECH OF ENGR. AKIN OLATERU, DIRECTOR GENERAL, NIGERIAN SAFETY INVESTIGATION BUREAU, AT THE RELEASE OF SEVEN FINAL ACCIDENT REPORTS AT AIB HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA ON 29TH DECEMBER 2022.

Gentlemen of the press, it is with pleasure that I welcome you all to this very important occasion where the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) will be releasing seven (7) final reports on occurrences to the public.

These reports are essential to the fulfilment of the Bureau’s mandate of investigating aircraft accidents and serious incident with the aim of enhancing safety, through safety recommendations issued, thereby assuring safe skies in Nigeria and Globally.

We remain committed, through improving our processes, human capacity and equipment, to fulfil our mandate effectively, purposefully and professionally.

Today, we are releasing seven serious incident final reports. Included in the reports are 20 Safety Recommendations, which were addressed to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the affected airlines, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), among others.

The newly released reports make a total of 82 aircraft accident reports released by the Bureau since its establishment in 2007 and a total of 63 reports released by the current administration from 2017 till date.

This year alone, seven (7) reports and thirty (30) safety recommendations have been released so far.

The Bureau has also released a total of 272 Safety Recommendations since inception with 191 of the recommendations released by this administration.

The reports to be released today include;

1. The serious incident involving Bristow Helicopters Nigeria LTD, Embraer 135 Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BSN which occurred at Port Harcourt military Airport (NAF BASE), Port Harcourt, on the 9^th March,2020.

2. The serious incident involving ATR-72 Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N- BPG owned and operated by Overland Airways limited, which occurred at Ilorin International Airport, Nigeria on 29th November 2014.

3. The serious incident involving Boeing 737-300 Aircraft belonging to Air Peace Limited with nationality and registration Marks 5N-BUO which occurred at FL310 enroute Enugu from Lagos on 14^th December,2018

4. The serious incident involving British Aerospace BAE 125-800B Aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BOO operated by Gyro Aviation limited, which occurred at Port Harcourt, Nigeria on 16th July 2020.

5. The serious incident involving British Aerospace BAE 125-800B aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BOO operated by Gyro Aviation limited, which occurred at Osubi airstrip, Warri, Nigeria on 10^TH September 2020.

6. The serious incident involving a Dornier 328-100 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-DOX, operated by Dornier Aviation Nigeria AIEP (DANA) Limited, which occurred at Port Harcourt military Airport on 23rd January 2019.

7. The serious incident involving Airbus 330-243 aircraft operated by middle East Airlines with nationality and registration marks OD-MEA and a parked Boeing 777 aircraft operated by Turkish Airlines with nationality and registration marks TC-LJC which occurred at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on 29^th July, 2020.

Details of the reports, which include the factual information, findings, analysis, conclusions and safety recommendations on the investigations are available for download on our website.

I would like to appreciate the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika for his unrelenting support for the Bureau’s activities.

I would also like to appreciate the NSIB team for their dedication, diligence and hard work that allows the Bureau to be able to fulfil its mandate always.

Thank you for your kind attention and God Bless.