Dana Disaster; Too Costly To Forgive

Whatever could make the number one citizen of a nation shed tears was certainly not a child’s play. The scene was too tragic to behold. Nobody visited there and remained the same. The gory pictures of charred human bodies, scattered metal pieces, burnt personal belongings and documents that were shown by television stations were enough to send a man even with the lion’s heart to tears. It was over five years Nigeria witnessed such a tragedy.

What really went wrong is still a guess work. Only the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) can ascertain it. So, it may be presumptuous to throw punch at anybody, at least for now.

But if the stories making round that the ill-fated Dana Airline that sent more than 153 people to their untimely graves and denied people of their valuable belongings and properties for life was not air worthy, are anything to go by, it means not just the Indian owned Dana Airline but also the NCAA would certainly have some questions to answer.

Some officials of the ill-fated aircraft claimed that the flight had persistent history of faults with its hydraulics in recent times.

An official of the airline who spoke in confidence with a television station, said, “The plane has been developing faults for a very long time. There was a case when it was on ground in Uyo for over six hours. And then it came to Abuja and some people went with the aircraft but they could not come back because it had a fault there and it couldn’t leave Abuja”.

Even though the management of the Dana Airline would humanly dismiss the inside-source allegation, its admission that the aircraft underwent a test flight to Ibadan and came back to Lagos on Saturday, is enough testament to the fact that all was not well with the ill-fated aircraft prior to the Sunday disaster.

It is therefore sad and inexcusable that over 153 innocent souls, most of who had spent years building their future and family had to pay for the gross negligence of some greedy capitalists in the aviation industry.

That our aviation sector is sick is not debatable. But has the situation gone so bad to the extent that the Management of the Dana Airlines would risk the lives of 153 people with a 22-year old plane that had been rejected by European Airline companies? It is a question the NCAA must answer to the satisfaction of the whole nation.

It is unfortunate that this tragic disaster occurred at a time we seem to be heaving a sigh of relief from the air-crashes in the last five years. President Goodluck Jonathan is right that, it is a great setback to his government’s reform of the aviation sector. But I think it goes beyond that. The air mishap has jolted us out of our facade sense of safety in the sky. And with the most devastating effects.

The Dana airline disaster, coming a day after another Nigeria plane crashed in Accra, Ghana, is most disastrous to the nation that is still yoking under the insurgence of a terrorist group called Boko Haram. Even though we are still awaiting official statement from the NCAA and other relevant authorities, there is a strong suspicion that the best practices in the aviation industry are being circumvented at will by both the airline operators and the NCAA for monetary gains. The recent  probe of two former aviation ministers is an eloquent testimony to this.

The Federal Government has been so proactive by banning the Dana Airlines and the subsequent withdrawal of its licence of operation. But that is not enough a soothing balm. The immediate and remote causes of the Dana Air crash must be properly investigated and made public, while the culprits are brought to book. I quite agree with the position of the Senate President, David Mark on the issue, yesterday, that offenders in the country often get away unpunished just “because there is too much forgiveness”.

According to him, “people just commit offences and get away with it and I think this is one offence too many and all those involved must be brought to book”.

It would therefore not speak well of Nigeria, not just the Jonathan administration alone if the probe of this latest mishap goes the usual way. The only way the souls of the departed can rest in peace is not through compensation the Dana Airlines would pay their families, but what comes out of the probe. No honour will be greater for the departed than that.

Boye Salau