Nigeria Leadership Initiative, NLI, has unveiled a web portal www.saferskyng.org to promote air travel safety in the Nigerian airspace. At a press briefing to unveil the website in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of NLI, Yinka Oyinlola said the main objective of the web portal is to make air travels in Nigeria safer and forestall future occurrence of air disaster through an alert mechanism.
He said, “The objective is very simple; to ensure that air travels in Nigeria are safer. The portal is supposed to be a place where consumers, travelers or citizens generally can observe an anomaly and then report it. It is an opportunity for air operators to use the medium to inform air travelers about whatever issues or for general information. It is a medium for citizens’ interests groups, parastatals and agencies to be able to monitor what is going on in terms of air travel. It is an opportunity for air regulators to be able to monitor what is going on and report anomalies when observed.”
He further explained that Nigeria has witnessed preventable air disasters more than any other countries within the African sub-region and that factors responsible for it can be reduced substantially through an information platform like this.
“The period prior to the Dana Crash, that is, from 2002 to 2012, Nigeria recorded very fatal ten air accidents, contrast that to Egypt that recorded only one, South Africa recorded only two in ten years. The factors responsible for air accidents in Nigeria can be managed to the minimum, and that is why NLI, a platform for driving positive change in Nigeria, has taken it upon itself to enhance air travels safety in Nigeria, through this platform,” he said.
He added that the portal is part of NLI’s ‘Safer Sky Initiative’ which was borne out of NLI’s drive for safer air travels and of aviation sector in Nigeria.
Also speaking Gbolahan Fagbure, President of NLI 2013 associates, whose class undertook the building of the portal, said the portal is designed to boost access to information needed to enhance air travel safety. He said: “When we worked in this portal, our intention was to make it a place where people can get information about various aspects of aviation industry. There are segments that talk about the various regulatory agencies in Nigeria and what their roles are in the aviation industry, and how they impact on safety of air travels.
“As a user of the website, you can have access to information like passengers’ bill of rights. This includes what your rights are as a passengers, what you can do if your flight is delayed or cancelled. It also has information on the various registered air lines in Nigeria. It also has the list of all air incidents in Nigeria from the very first one. There is also breakdown of it indicating where there were minor incidents and those involving casualties. We have also included various reports from the Accidents and Investigation Bureau, explaining the kind of investigation that has been carried out and findings made. So these reports would help people to know what caused particular accidents and whether what led to it is being repeated by air lines today. With this kind of information whether, NLI will collaborate with regulatory agencies and other stakeholders in the aviation sector to promote airline safety in Nigeria.”
