AIB releases final report revealing why Danbaba Suntai’s plane crashed

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has released final reports of four accidents and two major incidents that happened from 2012 to 2018.

Okay Nigeria understands that one major report among the four accidents was the late Danbaba Suntai, former governor of Taraba state, who piloted a Cessna 208B Caravan aircraft which crashed on October 25, 2012, close to Yola airport, in Adamawa state.

The late former governor was in serious condition before he passed away in 2017.

Akin Olateru, commissioner of AIB, while speaking to newsmen during a briefing on on Thursday, stated that the investigation showed that the late governor was not “certified, qualified and competent to fly the aircraft”.

Olateru said:

“However, the investigation identified the following factors which were that the pilot was not certified qualified and not competent to fly the aircraft, the decision of the pilot to operate a Visual Flight Rule (VFR) flight after sunset and inadequate oversight by the NCAA.”

The commissioner then charged the NCAA to be more awoken with their oversight responsibility.

He then revealed that 24 safety recommendations were generated from the six final reports, adding that the AIB now had a total of 46 final reports and 178 safety recommendations since its inception in 2007.

In his words:

“These safety recommendations are very important towards preventing re-occurrence of similar accidents or serious incidents, and when adhered to, can impact air safety positively, not only in Nigeria, but also globally.”