Nigerians were surprised when the Federal Government, on Tuesday, September 4, announced the lifting of the suspension on the flight operations of Dana Airlines. Coming exactly 93 days after its Flight 992 crashed in Iju-Ishaga on the outskirts of metropolitan Lagos, with all 153 on board and another six on ground killed in a tragedy officially tagged the worst airline accident this year worldwide, mixed reactions were bound to follow in its wake, and they did.
Industry stakeholders were happy about it, part of their reason being that it offers an opportunity for many of their members rendered jobless to return to work. Arguments were raised that it is counter-productive to sink airlines after each fatal incident, as many airlines operating around the world have experienced such ugly incidents but were still allowed to continue to operate once standard practices have been restored.
Some also argued that ships sink at sea, trains derail and many road accidents claim even more lives than aeroplane mishaps do and yet the companies operating these modes of transport are never forced to close shop.
Sound as these arguments appear others, however, are of the opinion that letting Dana go back to business at this juncture is hasty and smacks of insensitivity on the part of the authorities. For one thing, they say compensation packages are yet to be completely disposed of.
Dana authorities have made commendable efforts to refund the tickets of those booked flights before the incident. They have openly applied several corporate social responsibility actions. But many issues remain to be settled to enable the general public to put the ugly incident behind them.
For instance, they argue that it has not been fully established whether the alleged twin engine failures was as a result of corner-cutting or official neglect by the airline. The forensic analysis of the flight Data Recorder (FDR) which was taken to the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) of the USA has not yet been completed.
At least, the public has not been informed of the outcome. The inquiry into the incident by the National Assembly has not been settled. Also, the coroner’s inquest in Lagos was suddenly suspended by court order recently.
The emotional sore is still fresh. We hope, however, that the aviation authorities have put all necessary checks in place to ensure that we never experience a repeat of this very sad incidence in the aviation industry.
More efforts should also be made to build more c onfidence and trust in the industry.
-Vanguard