80% of aviation accidents caused by human error – Air Chief

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall, Sadique Abubakar, has said that 70 to 80 percent of aviation accidents globally are caused by human error.

He spoke yesterday at the opening of a one-day seminar on Safety in Aircraft Maintainace Environment 2018 at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base in Kaduna.

Represented by the Chief of Standard and Evaluation, AVM Charles Ohwo, the CAS said NAF was determined to work with regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that all operational and engineering units improved on their present standards.

“Recall that several reports worldwide have shown that aviation accidents are of events with human factors being the chunk of the accidents. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Safety report found that 26 per cent of the accidents have maintenance cause event which started the accident chain,’’ he said.

Abubakar said with these startling statistics, it was essential to urgently address aircraft maintenance safety issues with renewed vision and vigour adding, that “The aim is to enhance operational efficiency through reduction or elimination of platforms losses caused by avoidable accidents.”

Earlier, the Air Officer Commanding Air Training Command, AVM Muhammad Idris, said the NAF Institute of Safety had trained a lot of personnel who are expected to be safety practitioners in their respective units.

Idris said this year alone, the institute had trained 78 officers, airmen and airwomen with another 45 students pilots undergoing the safety officers course saying, noting that“This efforts signify the high premium the service places on aircraft maintenace and aviation safety.”