The National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation investigating the Dana plane crash was told, yesterday, that seven years after the Bellview plane crash where 117 perished, investigations were yet to be concluded.
Disclosing this when he appeared before the committee at its second day public hearing, yesterday, Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, Captain
Yusuf Lawal, told the committee members that investigations into the ADC crash which claimed the life of the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, his son and other victims had also not been concluded.
The Senate and the House of Representatives Committees on Aviation are presently carrying out a four-day investigation into the Dana air crash in Lagos and cargo plane that crashed in Ghana.
Lawal who also revealed that investigations into the Bellview crash were still on-going, stressed that the black box of the flight was never recovered from the crash site, just as he said the 2005 report on the Sosoliso air crash was released in 2006.
The AIB boss who disclosed that despite the inability of the bureau to analyse the black box, qualified staff of the bureau accompanied the box to the United States to avoid any interference, adding that if Nigeria as a country must set up a flight recorder laboratory popularly called the black box, a total of $5.6 million would be required.
Also at the hearing, the South-West zonal coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Charles Adakole who disclosed that the agency had only one helicopter which is in Abuja, however, told the committee that rescue operations started four hours after the Dana accident took place.
Explaining some of the challenges faced by men of NEMA, Adakole said the agency received a call at two minutes past four and got to the site 18 minutes past four, adding that there was unruly crowd, unnecessarily large number of officials who were busy just taking pictures, no semblance of coordination, and stressed the need for Nigerians to be enlightened especially on the need for them not to go near crash sites because it could compromise search and rescue.
Also speaking at the public hearing, Managing Director of National Aviation Managment Agency, NAMA, Nnamdi Nwafor Udo, told the lawmakers that his agency which is responsible for “activating search and rescue” mission, responded promptly when the May Day alarm was raised.
Pressed further to provide specifics on the time lines of when the NAMA responded to the distress call, Udo said to avoid speculations, the transcript of recordings between the plane and NAMA would be most appropriate, even as he questioned report by some NEMA staff that they got the alarm around 3 o’clock and 4 p.m, insisting that the NAMA raised the distress call at 14:45 Nigerian time.