Probe begins into incident, Delta Airlines begs AIB

The Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau, Akin Olateru, says investigation has commenced into the serious incident involving a Delta Airlines’ aircraft.

“We look forward to receiving cooperation from Delta Airlines as we work to determine the cause of this serious incident in the interest of safety,” he said.

Olateru stated this on Thursday when a team of the airline’s officials, including the technical crew of the affected flight and the Lagos airport station manager led by the Manager, Air Safety Investigation, Delta Airlines, Miss Shannon Masters, visited the AIB and apologised for not reporting the incident early.

Masters noted that the delay in reporting the incident to the bureau was an oversight.

“We sincerely apologise for the error and we promise to cooperate with the AIB in the investigation of this occurrence,” she stated.

The AIB had frowned on the US carrier’s failure to notify it of the serious incident involving its aircraft in line with Nigeria’s air safety regulations and international practices.

The airline was believed to have notified the United States National Transportation Safety Board of the occurrence immediately, in line with the US laws.

Olateru said as the state of occurrence under the International Civil Aviation Organisation Annex 13, Nigeria should be responsible for investigating any aircraft incident within its airspace, while the state of registry of the aircraft and the airline might serve as observers.

Delta Airlines’ Atlanta-bound Flight 55, which departed Lagos on Tuesday night, returned some minutes later to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport following an issue with one of the Airbus 330-200’s two engines.(punch)