Dana Air has disputed the claim in the
preliminary report of the Accident Investigation Bureau that the pilot
who flew its plane which crashed on June 3 in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos State,
started flying for the company in late May.
The flight duration
accrued by the deceased pilot within the period he flew for Dana has
been the subject of controversy, with some saying it was a breach of the
standard of International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Dana Air Director of
Flight Operations, Mr. Edward Wilson, on Wednesday, said at a Coroner
court in Ikeja that contrary to AIB’s claim, the 55-year-old pilot, who
was employed by the company on March 14, 2012, “was released to fly as a
captain for the company on May 1, 2012″.
AIB’s preliminary report
on the crash says the pilot accrued over 120 hours from late May to
June 3, 2012, the day he died in his last flight.
However, a former
Nigeria Airways pilot, Tito Omaghomi, in his testimony at the
proceedings of August 9, alleged that accruing over 120 flight hours
within a period of about 13 days was a breach of ICAO standard.
Omaghomi told the
Coroner, Mr. Oyatade Komolafe, that the ICAO standard stipulates that a
pilot can only fly for a maximum of 100 hours within 30days.
Wilson, who was led in
evidence by, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, said it was “impossible” to accrue
over 120 hours within the period as stated in AIB’s report.
According to him, if
late May were to mean a period from May 20, it will mean the pilot flew
“for about 11 hours everyday which is impossible”.
The cross-examination of
the witness was adjourned till September 3, upon request by some
counsel that they needed the transcript of his testimony.
Earlier, one of Dana’s
maintenance personnel, Mr. Lawrence Edekobi, during cross-examination,
said he was not a “technician” as being addressed by the lawyers.
Edekobi insisted that he
was an engineer by the virtue of his certification by the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. This is
despite his admission that he did not have a university degree in
engineering and that he was not a member of Council for the Regulation
of Engineering in Nigeria.
He said neither the
possession of a university degree in Engineering nor membership of COREN
was a requirement for certification as an engineer in the aviation
industry.
The witness said he
obtained ‘CT and Guilds’ in Electrical Engineering from Government
Technical College, Onitsha; attended Nigeria Airforce Technical
Institute where he obtained a certificate in aircraft maintenance; and
later joined the Airforce as a technician in 1981.
He said he left the
Airforce in 1992 and was later licensed as an “aircraft maintenance
engineer” by the NCAA having passed the required tests.
He testified that he
left Lagos for Abuja on June 3 with the crashed plane, 5N-RAM, as a
passenger to relieve the maintenance engineer on duty and that he did
the “internal transit check” of the plane before it was air-borne back
to Lagos.
The sitting continues on Thursday (today).
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