23rd September, 2013
The announcement recently by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, that in 2012 African aviation accounted for only 3 percent of global traffic but nearly 50 percent of all the fatalities with Western-built jets, is frightening and must be reversed.
The numbers are mind-boggling. Last year alone, African airlines had one accident (with Western-built planes) for every 270,000 flights. Globally, the industry average was one accident for about every five million flights.
Experts say African planes continue to be regarded as flying coffins because they have not complied with recommended international safety audits. For instance, none of the airlines that crashed in Africa last year had passed IATA Operational Safety Audit, also known as IOSA.
Globally, none of the 384 airlines on the IOSA registry had a jet lull loss – including some three dozen carriers on this continent. There are 25 airlines on the IATA registry in Africa and none of them crashed.
Dana Air, whose plane crashed in Lagos on Sunday 3 June, 2012, killing more than 150 people, was not and is still not IOSA certified. But IOSA is only compulsory in two out of 54 African countries: In Egypt and Madagascar.
The other recommended safety audit, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, also known as USOAP, has only been implemented in 11 out of 54 African countries. Sadly, even those 11 African countries have only achieved 60 percent of ICAO’s safety-related standards and recommended practices.
More than 40 African countries are still below that important benchmark. With safety audits so poorly implemented and with some blacklisted Eastern-built planes still being used by some airlines on the African continent, the European Union banned some African airlines from flying into its skies.
We believe that Nigerian and African airlines must comply with international safety audits such as IOSA and USOAP for safer skies.
We also believe that these audits must be complemented by efficient oversight functions by African civil aviation authorities.
With only 27 months to 31 December, 2015, when African airlines are expected to all be IOSA certified, we encourage African governments to stick and work toward achieving that crucial deadline. It is only when our skies are safe and our airlines are professionally run that African carriers will go from US100 million dollars losses in 2012 to US100 million dollars profits that IATA has predicted this year.