NCAA Lauds Ortom’s Role On FAA Safety Status

The Acting Director-Gen
eral, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr.  Benedict Adeyileka,  has commended  former supervising Minister of Aviation, Chief Samuel Ortom, for  providing leadership and support that led to Nigeria’s retention of the Category One safety  status from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Mr. Adeyileka said this recently in a press conference, while giving details of efforts made to ensure that the country was re-certified by FAA.
The category one safety status is issued by the US  FAA to countries that have complied with a rigorous safety audit in terms of technical capacity, manpower capability and regulatory oversight. Its after this tasking process that the US will consider those countries’ airlines safe to US airspace and operate into the country’s destinations.
Chief Ortom was the supervising Minister of Aviation  through out the period the safety  audit was conducted in Nigeria by the FAA.
FAA, first awarded Nigeria category one safety status  in 2010, after  it was confirmed  that the country met the international aviation safety assessment standards.
In March, 2014, the FAA visited Nigeria and carried out an intensive safety assessment of the Nigerian aviation industry to ascertain if the status would be withdrawn or not.
The eight critical elements the US FAA team considered were primary aviation legislation, specific, operating regulations, state civilization system and safety oversight functions and technical personnel  qualification and training.
Other critical elements include technical guidance and tools licensing and certification Obligations, surveillance obligations and resolution of safety concerns.
During  that process, some open areas were identified which needed to be closed within a specified period of time or Nigeria will lose the certification.
NCAA Acting Director General support and leadership, which  saw the National Assembly  and the presidency grant all the necessary funding and support in record  time to beat the deadline set by the FAA.
“We recognized our deficiencies and we  took our challenges to the then supervising Minister for Aviation,  Chief  Samuel  Ortom and he promptly  acted on our concerns, adding that the NCAA  got the necessary  support  from Ortom.
Adeyileka also used  the opportunity to thank  all other stakeholders in the aviation industry who worked tirelessly to ensure Nigeria  retained the certification and announced government support to airlines who would want to take advantage  of the category one status to service the US routes.