By Linus Aleke
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, has reacted to the latest aircrash, involving NAF MI-171 Helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission in Niger State, saying that it is impossible to fly without air mishaps.
He also said the NAF has adopted the safety management systems and operational risk management procedures, among others, in all its operations.
This is as he assured that despite all these challenges, the NAF will continue to strive to perform its duties effectively and efficiently as a force multiplier, especially in Operation Hadrin Daji and Operation Whirl Punch.
Air Marshal Abubakar stated that as long as the NAF operates and flies airplanes, there would be incidents and accidents.
The CAS who said this while welcoming the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, who paid a condolence visit to him at NAF headquarters, added that the volume of incidents and accidents is directly proportional to the rate of operations.
Air Marshal Abubakar said: “On our own parts, we are not folding our arms, we are just living with the challenges. The ideal thing is to strive for zero incident and accident in any operational environment.
We’re striving for that, it is virtually impossible to achieve but then, you strive for it, so that at the end of the day, you minimise whatever happens. Or when it happens, the effect is significantly abated”.
He told the visiting Governor and his team that, “Despite all our commitment, our dedication and efforts we have put in, to eradicate these security challenges, we have a couple of issues that bother us which one of them is the crash of our air plane yesterday. The fact is that, as long as we operate, fly airplanes, there would be incident and accident. In fact, the volume of incidents and accidents is directly proportional to the rate of operations.
“You would have also observed that in the past couple of years, let’s say five, six seven years, we have inducted quite a few platforms in the Nigerian Air Force and the rate of our flying activities have significantly improved.
So, if you compare that 20 years back, you will notice that there is a far difference. Sometimes, these come with its own challenges of incidents and accidents, and such challenge is what you saw yesterday. As long as we fly, we see some of these challenges. We hope they don’t happen but when they happen, we take it and live with it”.
The CAS However, noted that the Service is putting a lot of initiatives in place to check the ugly phenomenon.
On possible remedies, he said: “we have adopted the safety management systems in all our operations. We have also adopted operational risk management procedures among others. Going forward, we are striving to achieve zero incident in all our operations. That challenge we’re addressing. We also have other challenges which are seasonal. For example, the rain has come and there is route cloud, this hampers what we can see especially in terms of our strike capabilities and (ISI) that is the system intelligence surveillance and renaissance mission”.
He explained that harmattan also has effects on NAF operations, stressing that “these are challenges we live with and we hope that sometimes you understand when our operations are hampered or impeded by some of these challenges”.
Earlier, the Governor of Niger State, Mr. Mohammed Umar Bago, said the state government, under his leadership will support the Nigerian Air Force to do its job better in the state.
READ ALSO: Military loses helicopter, pilot in Niger as bandits ambush, kill 13 soldiers
Outlining the reasons for his visit, the Governor said: “On behalf of the people and government of Niger State, we have come to you with three issues, one is to commiserate and condole with you over the death of your men and soldiers at Niger State. The crash happened within the mountain of Shiroro. We deeply sympathise with you. We also sympathise with Nigerian military over the loses recorded in the ambush that happened in Wushishi which eventually brought about the evacuation by your own chopper that crashed.
“Secondly to thank you very much for what you have been doing. The Air Force has done so much for us as a people. You have supported Niger State in the fight against insurgency and banditry. I want to say don’t be tired. Thank you very much for what you’ve been doing. Your deployment of both fighter jet and UAVs have been very apt and helpful to the ground troops and our own local vigilantes. But like Oliver Twist, we need more.
“I have come here to say Minna airport was created as a backup for Abuja airport and we have the longest runways in Nigeria. We’re calling on you to please send some detachment and some fighter planes to Minna, so that we can have more rapid responses when they are very close instead of flying from either Kainji or Kaduna”.
