AIB goes digital with publication of accident, incident reports
Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB-N) has said it will adopt the digital means of publishing in releasing final reports of accidents and serious incidents going forward.
The Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau, Engr. Akin Olateru, disclosed at a forum held in Abuja today – Wednesday, August 25, 2021 – that this was in line with the recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as enshrined in Annex 13.
According to him, a digitalized system of reporting would bring the reports closer to the public and can be easily accessible by all stakeholders than the conventional method of printing hard copies, which are usually not given the needed attention.
“The fact is the world standard, which is ICAO, has a format of reporting the final report that is a hundred pages presented to the world and on website. What we are trying to do is to challenge the status quo, to actually find a better way of getting this to the public.
“Today, how many people are reading reports (accidents and incidents)? You have this report about 300 pages of what happened, safety recommendations, and so on. What we are trying to do is to digitalise in a graphic way with a database of the same reports,” Olateru said while explaining the motive and relevance of the new initiative.
He added that the Bureau is committed to its task, and would be the first in the world to begin the digitalization process which will commence soon.
“We are going to be doing that very soon, to make it easier for the airlines to read, for anybody of interest to go to a particular section rather than flipping through pages of documents. If it is on human factors, you just click on the graphic and it will tell you everything on human factors.
“If it is about the engine, the same thing applies. The whole essence is about simplifying the way we communicate with the rest of the world in terms of our by-products and it has been discussed at the highest level at ICAO and is being accepted. By the time we are done, Nigeria will be the first in the world that would come up with this format. That is what I mean by Nigeria will lead the world very soon in terms of accident investigation reporting system,” he said.
He said the Bureau was open to finding new ways of doing things in order to enhance its productivity in the area of its mandate.
On when the project will kick off, Olateru said the Bureau is presently at the procurement stage and that it will be up before the end of 2021.
“We are going through our procurement stage; we should be ready before the end of the year that would come upstage. When we are done, because we are making a lot of investment on this, Saudi Arabia has shown interest and partnering with us on this project because it is a great project that would change the world in terms of Annex 13 of the Accident investigation.
“We will have a platform whereby airlines, stakeholders will subscribe; you have access to it to train your pilots, engineers, and stakeholders in the industry. The press too can have access to it to update their information or satisfy their inquiries. There would be a nominal fee. In a way, AIB wants to use this as an opportunity to drive internally generated revenue,” said Olateru.
