Wreckage of the crashed Bristow Helicopters’ chopper
Despite installing an Air Safety Laboratory to aid the study of’ black boxes of aircraft, the Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau will require the expertise of a Canadian firm, CAE Flightscope, to download the black boxes’ contents of the Bristow Helicopters’ chopper that crashed in Lagos last week.
Facts emerged on Sunday that the Accident Investigation Bureau had yet to complete payment for its $5m (about N1bn) Air Safety Laboratory.
And this might have prompted it to invite Canadian experts to be involved in extracting the stored information from the black boxes of the Bristow Helicopters’ chopper, which crashed in Lagos on Wednesday.
It was learnt that the devaluation of the naira, government policies on transferring of foreign currencies abroad by government agencies, bureaucracy and insufficient funds were responsible for the delay in completing payment for the laboratory.
The laboratory was acquired for the purpose of downloading the contents of aircraft’s black boxes. The AIB used to spend millions of dollars flying the vital objects overseas to decode.
The delay in paying for the laboratory was said to have affected the process of transferring the technology from the Canadian firm, CAE Flightscope, to the AIB.
It was learnt that none of the accident investigators of the AIB could download the contents of the black boxes without the help of experts from the manufacturing firm.
This is happening four and a half years after the agreement for the purchase of the laboratory was signed by the AIB and representatives of the Canadian firm at the agency’s head office at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, on February 10, 2011.
This is said to be part of the reasons the agency had to invite the Canadian manufacturers to assist it in downloading the black boxes’ contents of the Associated Airlines plane, which crashed in Lagos two years ago.
“The manufacturers are trying to play smart on the AIB. They know that if they transfer the technology completely and the agency does not need them again whenever they want to download black boxess’ contents, they may have problem getting their money,” a top official of the Ministry of Aviation told our correspondent on Sunday.
“The AIB is meant to have completed the money within two to three years but the exchange rate fluctuations and devaluation of the naira, government bureaucracy among other issues have caused the delay in making the payment,” another top official of the ministry said.
Unconfirmed sources said the AIB might have paid only a little above $3m out of the $5m it acquired the laboratory.
The spokesman for the AIB, Mr. Tunji Oketumbi, confirmed that the lab, currently located at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, was used to download the contents of the Associated Airlines’ black boxes.
Oketumbi admitted that the agency had yet to complete the payment for the laboratory but noted that it would not affect the ongoing investigation of the Bristow Helicopters chopper crash.
Asked if the delay in payment would affect the Bristow Helicopters crash report, he said, “No, it will not. We have used the lab to download recorders from the Associated Airlines plane crash. If it did not affect it, then it won’t now.”
The Associated Airlines crash was apparently the first major air crash the AIB would be using the laboratory to download its black boxes’ contents.
Meanwhile, it was gathered on Sunday that the AIB investigators had obtained recordings of the last conversations between the pilots of the ill-fated Sikorsy S-76 aircraft and the Air Traffic Controllers on duty on the day the crash occurred.
Also, the agency has also obtained crucial documents from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency for necessary investigations.
The agency will also interview some Air Traffic Controllers of the NAMA, survivors of the crash and some of the fishermen who were around when the chopper crashed in the lagoon.
Oketumbi, confirmed the moves, said it was part of the normal investigation procedures of the agency.
The Bristow Helicopters chopper had crashed on its final approach to landing at the Lagos airport on Wednesday. Of the 12 souls on board, four passengers and the two pilots died.
The six survivors are currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
The black boxes of the aircraft were found a few days later.
The External Communications Manager, Bristow Helicopters, Julie King, had said that the company would keep the public abreast of whatever information was deemed important
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