AIB to release report on Suntai’s plane crash April 25

AIB to release report on Suntai’s plane crash April 25
PHOTO CREDIT: SHIPS & PORTS archive

Seven years after late Governor of Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai crashed his Cessna 208B Caravan with registration 5N-BMJ near Yola Airport in Adamawa, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) is set to release the accident investigation report.

The governor survived the 2102 crash but was in and out of hospital both at home and abroad before he passed on five years after in the United States.

The Commissioner of the AIB, Engr. Akin Olateru disclosed this on Thursday in Lagos at the AIB 2019 Stakeholders’ Forum on “Review Accident Investigation Bureau Regulations 2016 and its Implications for aviation stakeholders”.

According to him, the bureau will on April 25 release reports on six air accidents and serious incidents including the accident involving the late governor.

He said the other reports to be released are serious incident involving Delta Airlines Airbus A330-223 which happened on the 14th of February 2018 when one of its engines caught fire minutes after take-off; Diamond DA40 aircraft belonging to International Aviation College (IAC) Ilorin which occurred on November 25, 2013; Dana Runway incident in Port Harcourt in 2018, among others.

The six reports would bring the number of final reports released by the bureau to 27 in the last two years.

Olateru urged airline operators to improve on their safety practices bearing in mind that aviation “is a highly regulated, highly technical and volatile industry.”