Associated Plane Crash: Senate Says NO To Oduah’s Explanation

The Senate on Tuesday rejected the explanation of the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, on the ill-fated crash involving a 23-year-old Propeller aeroplane on the fleet of the Associated Airlines on October 3.

Ms. Oduah was also urged to re-submit a detailed presentation on the incident.

The minister appeared before the Senate in company with heads of the various agencies under her ministry. She limited her presentation to the information retrieved from the black box of the aircraft.

Stella Oduah explained that the Accident and Investigations Bureau began investigation and diagnosed the black box in the airport’s laboratory and demonstrated a 2-minute video of the conversations between the two pilots, adding that both engines of the aircrafts were faulty and should not have been allow to fly.

She pointed out that the speed of the plane was not enough for the engine to take off and that the co-pilot warned that the bird should not take off but that his colleague, who was in charge of the flight, ignored the advice.

She said, “As the minister of aviation, the fact that we got preliminary report in our laboratory without waiting for the final report, showed that we have put in place preventive measures.”

The minister proceeded with a power point presentation, containing graphic and pictoral details of the state of the various airports in Nigeria and how her administration had been able to carry out a comprehensive transformation of the sector.

Having listened to the presentation, the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, who represented Senate President David Mark, said Oduah’s explanation fell short of addressing the circumstances that surrounded the crash.

Ningi said the minister should come up, at another date, with details about the processes that led to the take-off of the aircraft on the fateful day, especially those whose responsibility it was, to have alerted relevant agencies on its condition.