Chopper crash puts Africa’s air safety in the spotlight

Police officers at the scene of Sunday helicopter crash, which killed two ministers.[PHOTO: COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD]

By John Oyuke

The latest helicopter crash that killed Internal Security Minister, George Saitoti, and Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode on Sunday has raised fresh concerns about regional air safety.

It has also negated popular opinion that the poor aviation safety record in the continent is improving.The police chopper that killed the two ministers, and four others in Ngong forest sent shock waves across East Africa where this mode of transport is gaining popularity within the top hierarchy of government, politics and business.  

It also comes when politicians are increasing turning to the nimbly and swift machines as they crisscross the country in search of votes a head of the General Election.

While aviation experts are still investigating the cause of the crash, the fact that the incident came soon after two deadly plane crashes in Ghana and Nigeria, is a reminder that aviation regulation and oversight remain a key challenge for most sub-Saharan African countries.

Air accidents

Statistics from the International Air Transport Authority (Iata), an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Canada have shown a significant decline in air accidents in African airlines between 2010 and last year. There were eight accidents across the continent, 10 less than 2010, but still considerably higher than on other continents.

Aviation experts say the poor state of infrastructure – airstrips, runways, broken down communications equipment such as air navigation aids – and corruption in issuance of air operators’ licenses continue to be responsible for accident’s high rate of air crashes.

“The main causes are well known. What is lacking is the strong will to address them in a systematic and effective way,” they submit.

Iata’s Regional Director for Africa on Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, Gaoussou Konate says one of the main contributing factors for high accident rate is lack of safety management at airlines, airports and air navigation service providers.

Basic operations

“Poor regulatory oversight at state level and crew proficiency problems, poor maintenance, lack of certified mechanics and reliable parts, poorly trained pilots, old navigational aids and weak operational control are some of the contributing factors,” he observed while speaking in Nairobi recently. Another factor is non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures, which are universally recognised as basic to safe aviation operations.

According to Secretary General of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Dr Elijah Chingosho, the stakeholders in Africa are determined to ensure that safety levels on the continent are up to world standards.

“This has prompted in recent years various stakeholders to co-ordinate their activities in areas such as safety training and pool expertise to help build a safety culture and adequate safety oversight capacity on the continent,” he said.

He pointed at a recent air Safety Summit held in South Africa to develop a Strategic Improvement Action Plan to be implemented from this year to 2015 so as to strengthen regulatory oversight and enhance safety performance.

The Summit agreed on a number of Strategic Improvement Action Plans, which will be submitted for endorsement to the African Union Ministerial Meeting on Aviation Safety planned later this year.

In order to significantly improve safety in Africa by end of 2015, the Summit focused on five achievable tasks, including adoption and implementation of an effective and transparent regulatory oversight system.

In the analysis, it was observed that the main influencing factors of accidents are lack of effective Regulatory Oversight, lack of implementation of Flight Data Analysis (FDA) and Safety Management Systems (SMS).