Associated crash: UK insurance team visits Nigeria

Some representatives of the insurance giant, Lloyd of London, arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday to work with stakeholders in the aviation sector following last Thursday's plane crash involving an Associated Airlines' aircraft.

The team, which came from Blake Group, a United Kingdom crisis management firm, said it came to see things in view of the controversy surrounding the insurance policy on the aircraft. A source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said the team was also in the country to work with the airline and families that lost their relatives in the crash.

The source, who chose not to be named, said the representatives visited the office of the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, the crash site, the NCAA office and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital to see the survivors.

The source added that the representatives of the insurance giant also inspected the wreckage of the aircraft at the site of the accident. On the allegation that the embattled airline had no insurance policy, the source said the airline took the policy directly from the insurance giant, adding that this led to insinuation that the airline had no insurance policy.

Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has called on Nigerians not to politicise the crash, which has so far claimed the lives of 15 persons. FAAN, in a statement on Wednesday, said rather than attack the government and its parastatals over the crash, eminent Nigerians, especially politicians, should offer constructive support on how the issues could be addressed.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, who made the call, said that political leaders in other parts of the world would not use such situation to discredit the government. He said instead, such people identified with the government and gave their support in ensuring positive changes. He observed in the statement that since the unfortunate crash of the 120 Embraer aircraft, opposition leaders had thrown caution to the wind to exploit the sad incident for political gains. He said, "Perhaps it is important to look at the most recent case of tragedy in Kenya, East-Africa.

Recently, when Kenya was faced with one of the worst hostage crises the country had ever seen, the fervour towards unity and the patriotism exhibited by Kenyans was one never seen before. "At periods of great trials, statesmen stand out; it is high time we learnt from Kenya. "The change we are making will take some time to unsettle the many years of lopsided and inefficient policies and actions which have brought us to where we are today."

Dati remarked that it was no secret that the Nigerian aviation sector was left to a cascading decline, until the present leadership of the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, embarked on a rescue operation two years ago. He said it was the determination of the present government to ensure that the country did not record any more accident as the policy laid on ground would soon start yielding results. He said, "If you check world aviation statistics, in the last three months, there have been 100 emergency landings all over the world. South Africa alone has recorded 37 emergency landings with about 25 deaths in less than 12 months. But they involved unscheduled aircraft."